1-on-1 with Angie Nixon after her Florida primary win, what's next in race for Senate
Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon is officially the Democratic nominee for the Senate, running for the seat currently held by Republican Ashley Moody. Nixon joined Facing South Florida host Jim DeFede to discuss what she's looking ahead to as the race intensifies.
"We won this campaign because of good old-fashioned grassroots people-powered organizing. I am a former union organizer. I'm a community organizer, and I know the importance of going out and talking to people all across the state if I wanted to, in fact, become their next United States senator," Nixon said. "And that's what happened. We talked to people, and we kept it on the issues. We didn't make it about personal attacks or anything like that. We really focused on what the needs and concerns were that we were hearing for nearly this past year. And so I am super excited that folks saw me fit to make me their Democratic nominee, and we believe we'll be successful in November as well."
Nixon saw primary wins across the state, with notable standout performances in Duval and Orange counties, along with Congressional District 24. Nixon, who joined the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) over the summer, said her wins were because of the outreach she made to Floridians.
"We spent a lot of time all across the state. I saw that even in Escambia County, it went for us, and that's because we spent time there, and we talked to people, and we talked about the issues that they cared about," she said. "It wasn't about labels, and we can argue all day about labels. I have a lot of them attached to me, right? But at the end of the day, it's about the needs of the people, and I have shown that throughout my entire adult career, I am always about putting people first-people over politics, people over profit, and even people over party."
Nixon has pressed back against the "socialist" label, claiming she isn't one. Rather, she told DeFede "I am someone who just really cares about people and believes that hardworking everyday people should get to shape what our communities look like and what our economies look like."
Nixon did confirm she joined the DSA, but noted she also joined the Working Families Party as well. She shared her reasoning for joining the DSA.
"Because they fight for access to quality healthcare," she said. "'They're fighting for allowing people to have control of the government. They are fighting to make sure that our schools are fully funded. They are fighting to make sure that people have housing. We have veterans that are living on the streets. We have educators that are leaving the profession and actually leaving the state of Florida because they can no longer afford to live here."
Rather, Nixon would say she's more of a social Democrat. She told DeFede her disagreements with the DSA include a clarification about prisons and about funding police.
"I do not believe in abolishing prisons. I believe in abolishing for-profit prisons because I don't believe in exploiting cheap labor, having free labor in the form of those folks who are incarcerated. I believe that there is a direct correlation between these Republicans trying to destroy public education so that they can usher our children into the into the school to prison pipeline so that they can make more money off of them. I don't agree with defunding the police. I've never stated that ever. I'm not supportive of that. I'm just supportive of people-focused, people-centered policies," she said.
Nixon also responded to a question about the DSA praising Fidel Castro recently on the anniversary of his birthday.
"I don't believe he's someone that should be praised. I also don't believe that Donald Trump is someone that should be praised as well. But I want to be clear: I am putting people first, and I care about people, and I I care about the trauma that people may have experienced if they were over in Cuba or any other area where socialism was a thing, but I also want to highlight that we're feeling a lot of oppression and trauma right now in a very in America, and we have to do things differently," Nixon said. "We have to put the government back in the hands of the people and allow people to decide the types of policies that we want, and overwhelmingly, the people are pushing for universal health care. The people are pushing for us to have fully funded public education. The people are pushing to ensure that we get these private equity firms out of buying up all of these single family homes. Single families should own single-family homes. We are tired of working harder than ever with nothing to show for it. But meanwhile, our government under Ashley Moody and Donald Trump want to continue to bail out these big corporations, but don't look out for these small business owners. They don't look out for these people who are working hard and getting less and less and less. I am looking out for the regular everyday people because I am a regular everyday person."
Still, Nixon said she's aware her association with the DSA is getting her labeled as a socialist by her Republican opponent. It's something she said she's already learned to contend with.
"They were already labeling me all kinds of things: radicals, extremists. They're going to do that regardless because they can't find anything against me in regards to saying that I'm gonna hurt people, like I'm not about that, right? So they will make things up, and so I'm gonna go talk to people and have real conversations with them. I don't run away from conversations, even if it makes me uncomfortable. If I want to be the next United States senator, I have to have conversations with people and listen to them, even if we differ ideologically," Nixon said.