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<\/a><\/p>\nFlorida’s Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Angie Nixon greets people on the campaign trail in Miami ahead of Tuesday’s primary. (Joe Raedle\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Nixon is expected to face an uphill battle against her GOP competitor Ashley Moody. Given Florida\u2019s status as a red state, Moody is likely to retain the seat, which she won last year after Marco Rubio, also a Republican, stepped down to become U.S. secretary of state. She and Nixon will vie to complete the last two years of that term, in a state that hasn\u2019t sent a Democrat to the Senate since 2019. The Cook Political Report currently rates the race as \u201csolid\u201d Republican. <\/p>\n
Nixon\u2019s triumph in the primary, however, marks the first democratic socialist victory in a Senate contest this year, with all other democratic socialist wins in federal elections occurring in House races. She won over establishment favorite and Israel supporter Vindman, who dominated the spending game and was widely predicted to win the nomination. <\/p>\n
Her victory also comes as other candidates on the left flank of the party have claimed the Senate nomination in Maine, Michigan and Minnesota. Florida is the first red state to have gone with a Senate candidate this far to the left, and it raises the question of why Nixon prevailed and what it says about the larger dynamics among Democratic voters. But analysts caution that Nixon\u2019s win may be more connected to local political dynamics, including the miscalculations by Vindman and his staff, than to the country as a whole.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey did not take her candidacy seriously,\u201d Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. <\/p>\n
Emphasizing that Vindman and his team members \u201care certainly kicking themselves,\u201d Jewett stressed that while Nixon had wanted a debate, her opponent had refused. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know that he knew what he was getting into,\u201d added Jacob Perry, a Democratic strategist who had at one point been in discussions to join Vindman\u2019s campaign. <\/p>\n
Vindman, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant-colonel, served on the White House\u2019s National Security Council and was influential in Trump\u2019s first impeachment. Born in Kyiv, he left the former Soviet Union for the U.S. as a refugee with his father and siblings in 1979.<\/p>\n
One obstacle that Vindman faced in this race, according to Perry, was his newcomer status in Florida. Having moved to the Sunshine State just three years ago, after retiring from the Army, Vindman was unfamiliar with its political and cultural dynamics, he added. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe knows about as much about Florida politics as I know about Ukrainian politics,\u201d Perry said.<\/p>\n
Reflecting on the loss on Tuesday night, Vindman credited Nixon for her \u201cstrong campaign\u201d against him, noting in a post on X that he \u201cwill be standing by her side in the fight against Ashley Moody.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho would\u2019ve ever thought that a Jewish refugee would make it to the U.S. Army, to the White House, and to becoming a candidate for the U.S. Senate,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump celebrated Vindman\u2019s defeat on Wednesday, describing the outcome on Truth Social as \u201cthe most gratifying loss last night\u201d and calling Vindman \u201ca real treasonous creep.\u201d<\/p>\n
The president lashed out about Vindman\u2019s decision to testify in Congress over concerns about a Trump request from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate former President Joe Biden. Trump described the conversation as a \u201croutinely recorded\u201d and \u201cperfect call,\u201d stressing that he was \u201ccompletely innocent.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cVindman should be prosecuted for what he did,\u201d added Trump, who also described Vindman\u2019s opponent, Nixon, as \u201ca radical left lunatic\u201d who will face a \u201ccertain defeat at the hands of Ashley Moody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nixon on Tuesday thanked Vindman for his service and for his \u201cefforts to make sure that Florida voters know what is going on right now is not normal in Washington, D.C.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI look forward to working with Lieutenant Colonel Vindman and others to bring the people of Florida together,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Nixon, a state lawmaker from Jacksonville, has been an outspoken voice against Florida Republican efforts to redistrict congressional voting boundaries, which will likely result in fewer Democratic seats in the U.S. House. <\/p>\n
Although Nixon joined the Democratic Socialists of America this year, she didn\u2019t earn the group\u2019s endorsement. She did, however, gain the support of young Florida progressives, as well as Michigan U.S. House Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, who are top DSA voices and Israel detractors. Nixon spoke at a controversial rally on Friday in Fort Lauderdale, where Tlaib was a featured guest, the Miami Herald reported.<\/p>\n
Regarding Nixon\u2019s lack of DSA endorsement, Politico said it had obtained an internal Discord chat that had raised concerns about Nixon being \u201copportunistic\u201d because she joined DSA only recently. At the time, a DSA spokesperson explained that the message came from a specific DSA chapter and that Nixon hadn\u2019t filed an endorsement request. The group did not immediately respond to a request from JTA for further comment. <\/p>\n
Nixon has repeatedly accused Israel of committing genocide and criticized Vindman for staying silent on Israel. In Florida\u2019s legislature, she introduced a bill calling for a \u201cde-escalation and ceasefire in the state of Israel and occupied Palestine.\u201d She also voiced support for cutting U.S. aid for the Jewish state and declared that she doesn\u2019t take AIPAC money.<\/p>\n
\u201cTogether we went up against a political establishment against millions of dollars of out of state spending,\u201d Nixon said on Tuesday. \u201cWe were outspent 16 to one, and we won.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the course of the primary race, Nixon brought in less than $1 million, according to Federal Election Commission filings. Vindman, on the other hand, amassed more than $16 million, a sizable sum in a conservative-leaning state. Records available thus far do not link these funds to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, while the Track AIPAC website describes Vindman as \u201cpro-Israel\u201d but lists his \u201cIsrael lobby total\u201d as \u201cTBD.\u201d<\/p>\n
Regardless of the funding sources, Jewett pointed out that Vindman still has millions of dollars left in his campaign chest. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe had millions left that he could have spent buying more ads or developing a better ground game, recruiting more volunteers to go knock on doors,\u201d Jewett said. <\/p>\n
The ads he did run focused less on Nixon and more on introducing himself and attacking Moody, with \u201cthe presumption that he was going to win,\u201d Jewett added. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Perry observed that Vindman\u2019s social media photos throughout the campaign usually featured meetings with people who \u201clook like him.\u201d These groups, he explained, often included veterans who weren\u2019t registered Democrats and who weren\u2019t \u201cgoing to vote for him in a primary.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nixon, on the other hand, was capitalizing on her skills as a community organizer and was out hustling, Perry added.<\/p>\n
\u201cAngie understood the Democratic primary voter better than Alex or his team,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Stephen Sussman, a professor of public administration at Barry University, said he was unsurprised that Nixon ended up beating Vindman because her platforms \u201cresonated with the progressive left and the Democrats.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her messages, Sussman added, struck a chord \u201cwith the Democrats on the ground,\u201d while Vindman had the reputation of being \u201cmore of a national figure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jewett echoed these sentiments, noting that the reason political scientists had \u201ccalled him the frontrunner was because of his national notoriety and name recognition, and his role in bringing Trump to the first impeachment.\u201d <\/p>\n
In a general election, that national notoriety could have given him a slight advantage. Swing voters, Jewett explained, might have appreciated his overall moderate agenda, his military vet status, his pro-Israel stances and the fact that he still owns a weapon. <\/p>\n
While recognizing that Vindman could have had \u201ca little better chance than Nixon\u201d in the general election, Jewett stressed that Moody is the \u201cclearly the favorite\u201d in this red state.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s always a top vote-getter,\u201d Perry added. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing really particularly interesting or that stands out about her. But she somehow brings in the votes.\u201d<\/p>\n