Democratic socialist Florida State Rep. Angie Nixon easily won the Democratic Party primary against Alex Vindman for the Florida Senate seat, 56.1 percent to 43.9 percent. Nixon now squares off against Sen. Ashley Moody (R-Fla.), who was appointed to the seat vacated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio in 2025.
The news comes on the heels of a CBS News-YouGov poll taken Aug. 12 to Aug. 14 that showed 58 percent of Democrats have a positive view of socialism, while 18 percent had a negative view. The same poll showed 50 percent of Democrats have a negative view of capitalism, while 32 percent had a positive view.
Both the primary and the poll show deep divisions within the Democratic Party over the question of socialism, with Nixon’s win marking the first time an official Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) candidate has won a statewide primary — and making November a critical testing ground for DSA’s anti-corporate revolution.
Under the heading “A Government that Works for its People, Not Corporations,” central to Nixon’s platform is the nationalization of the health insurance, so-called Medicare for all, attacking what she calls the “protection racket for insurance and drug companies.”
In addition, Nixon is supporting a national rent “freeze” and moratorium on evictions, raising significant constitutional property rights issues — there is no constitutional mechanism for Congress to mandate domiciling on private property.
Nixon is also campaigning on “free” childcare, “free” paid family and sick leave and a “universal jobs program with inflation-adjusted wages.”
By “free” Nixon really means taxpayer-funded to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars: “How will we pay for it? Tax the billionaires so that everyone pays their fair share… [p]rioritize the needs of everyday Americans instead of spending trillions on war and violence overseas… [and] [g]et big money out of politics.”
So, “free” meaning not free, but rather costly.
For example, by “tax the billionaires,” here Nixon is referring to 977 billionaires with a net worth of $9.2 trillion, according to an estimate Americans for Tax Fairness. So, massive wealth taxes for a relatively few number of Americans, but whose net worth is tied up almost entirely in publicly traded companies.
Meaning, wealth taxes by design would be targeting and implicating public ownership of companies. In reality, what would happen is capital flight — the billionaires will house their assets overseas in tax shelters. People vote with their feet, and so does money.
In the case of Florida, of course, a state carried by President Donald Trump by more than 13 points, 56 percent to former Vice President Kamala Harris’ 42.9 percent, Nixon definitely faces an uphill battle against incumbent Republican Senator Moody, who leads the average of polls over Nixon by 9.5 points, 48.5 percent to just 39 percent.
This is where the divisive nature of socialism within not just the Democratic Party works against Moody’s general election prospects, but also independents, where socialism is viewed negatively by 42 percent and positively only by 36 percent, and negatively by Republicans at 74 percent to 14 percent.
Overall, the public is opposed to socialism 42 percent to 35 percent, with 23 percent having no opinion. In a blue city or a Democratic primary, then, socialism could be an advantage for a candidate—but in a red state like Florida, it could be a dead albatross around the candidate’s neck. Time will tell. Stay tuned.
Robert Romano is the Executive Director of Americans for Limited Government Foundation.
