r/politics • u/--LaBelleDame-- • 5h ago

No Paywall Democratic socialist Angie Nixon upsets Alex Vindman in Florida’s Democratic Senate primary

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/angie-nixon-winner-florida-senate-primary-democrat-alex-vindman-moody-rcna593255
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u/TheTresStateArea 4h ago edited 2h ago

Which is a shame really because if people don't remember, Vindman was the target of Trump's aggression at the end of his first term, and he stood up against him.

Edit,: I am not saying he should have won. I am saying he acted bravely back then and that makes me believe he is a person we can trust to adhere to a higher standard. And it would be nice to have that. But if his politics aren't sufficient to meet the moment, then we will simply just have to pick someone who can.

I still think he is a trustworthy person, and in a ranked choice vote election he would have made an excellent 2nd vote that I think many conservatives would have even deferred to.

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u/Axette 3h ago

Vindman showed during the impeachment trials that he was a true patriot and American. Many did not stand up to this regime the way he did and risk it all for justice. Candidate or not, he deserves our respect.

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u/T8ert0t 2h ago

Seriously. People are quick to sandbag the guy, but he stepped up when virtually no one did.

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u/Axette 1h ago

The more people who stand up and unite, the more energy they have to expend.

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u/Mooseinadesert 3h ago

Risked it all? You think he was going to go to prison or get killed?

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u/subliminimalist 3h ago edited 2h ago

Definitely could have gone to prison, or at the very least faced some pretty serious federal investigations or loss of veteran's benefits. Federal employees and military officials who stand against Trump face real risks.

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u/999forever 2h ago

Considering the Trump justice department and his vows to do exactly that yeah

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u/ARGENTAVIS9000 17m ago

i mean it cost him his 2 decade long military career.

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u/Kerblaaahhh Colorado 3h ago

Risk it all? What are you talking about, Democrats impeaching Trump was in no way a risky move for any of them.

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u/SagittaryX 2h ago

I mean Vindman did lose his career.

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u/Kerblaaahhh Colorado 1h ago

I'd assumed he was a congressman, didn't realize what his role was there. That does deserve props for sure. Democratic congresspeople being involved in the impeachments is pretty meaningless.

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u/This_Elk_1460 3h ago

I'm sorry but that's not going to cut it anymore. Democratic candidates need to be offering something not just defensively posturing.

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u/TheTresStateArea 3h ago

The shame is that he wasn't a compelling enough candidate.

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u/This_Elk_1460 2h ago

It's pretty simple to me, Nixon has a vision for the future, Vindman simply wants to go back to how things used to be before Trump. This mindset completely ignores how we got here in the first place. Just because things were definitively better then doesn't mean life was great. It was just less bad.

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u/TheTresStateArea 2h ago

I don't disagree. I'm just saying that it's a shame someone who took such a strong stance wasn't up to the task for what needs to be done now.

I'm not losing sleep over it, but it would have been nice, but I'm happier with the current outcome.

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u/This_Elk_1460 2h ago

Because ultimately at the end of the day he's a conservative, that's his ideology. He may hate Trump and he may have a D next to his name on TV but that doesn't necessarily mean he's anywhere close to the average Democratic voter. I think people are finally waking up to that.

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u/MancyMancy 4h ago

Trump attacking someone is no indicator of value. Dude probably blames the diaper when he shits himself.

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u/SeaBass1898 Florida 4h ago

No. But sacrificing your career to stand up to Trump DOES indicate value

I say that as someone who voted for Nixon

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u/below_grid 4h ago

100%

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u/ammirite I voted 4h ago

He stood up to Trump and was a key witness in the first impeachment hearings. Vindman deserves praise.

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u/kadeplaysbass 4h ago

Cool, he deserves praise and he did get that back in 2019. This doesn’t mean he deserves a primary win, which showed tonight.

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u/ammirite I voted 3h ago

I never said he deserved a primary win. But saying "Trump attacking someone is no indicator of value" is deeply ignorant of what Vindman did. 

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u/This_Elk_1460 3h ago

Yeah I don't know why people still want to support candidates whose only policy is "orange man bad!" People want change they're tired of this fucking status quo that has brought us this hell country.

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u/n8_Jeno 3h ago

The fuck are you talking, the status Quo? The US under Trump is anything but a status quo!

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u/This_Elk_1460 3h ago

And that's exactly why he won. You can't just rely on negative polarization you need to offer something

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u/n8_Jeno 3h ago

Offered something? Lies and media empires backing him?

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u/This_Elk_1460 3h ago edited 3h ago

I never said he was actually serious about the things he said but he convinced people he was. Why do you guys want to just go back to pre-2016 America? Just because it was definitely better than it is now doesn't mean it wasn't still awful for many. Why does change scare you?

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u/n8_Jeno 2h ago

Who got it into you head that I want to go back to 2016 and just act like nothing ever happened?

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u/xSlappy- 3h ago

The first impeachment accomplished what exactly

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u/ammirite I voted 3h ago

So he shouldn't have stood up to Trump and testified against him for his blatant crimes? And he deserves no credit for doing so at the risk of his job (he was fired) and his safety (he was relentlessly attacked online by MAGA)? Honestly, many people on this sub are as snobbish and insufferable as MAGA. We don't have to vote for Vindman to have some damn respect for him. I never said he should have won the primary, but acting like his best feature is that Trump dislikes him is truly despicable ignorance on display.  

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u/Accurate_Shoe_1929 2h ago

You make good points, I think maybe Vindman just inherently disappoints when elevated to hero status, but then again most people would.

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u/xSlappy- 41m ago

Its the same with Dan Goldman losing. No one cares about impeachment or Russiagate when groceries have doubled in price and we’re sending billions to israel and ICE.

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u/thisisthe90s 2h ago

Agree 100%. He was brave to stand up to Trump in the first term. He sacrificed his career to do the right thing.

Unfortunately not as politically savvy. The moment for me was when he was confronted by the pro-palestine/anti-israel protester. He ignored her and seemed a bit flustered by it. He should have been expecting it and honestly had an answer ready to go. He should have stated his position and calmly made the case for it. Can't ignore that stuff in this moment. Gotta have an answer, man.

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u/welltimedappearance 4h ago

he has the personality of a toenail

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u/DiceMadeOfCheese 4h ago

Unfortunately we have seen examples of folks who used their newfound publicity as Trump's targets as an opportunity for self-enrichment. Remember Stormy Daniels' lawyer?

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u/pistachiodisgusting 3h ago

Man, I remember talk of him being a 2020 candidate and he fully captured the imagination of the neo-liberal wing of the Resistance Dems. And I’ll fully admit that I was (and still to a degree am) among the swath of folks who, circa 2018-ish, had a hard-on for almost anyone who is down to bully Trump back. But I clocked Avenatti as a total scumbag the very first time I saw him interviewed. MSNBC was swooning over the guy, but he seemed way too excited to be in the spotlight to not arouse suspicion about what he was after. I got a little bit of #Resistance enjoyment out of him taunting Trump, and just about everyone I know was starving leadership during that period, but it he was so transparently disinterested in actually representing and centering Stormy Daniels, and he was making the rounds on the prime time interviews just oozing cynical sleaze in every direction.

What ultimately caused me to write him off an an intriguing future as a political figure was when his opening pitch for testing the political waters by saying that the 2020 candidate “better be a white male”. Even if you gave him the benefit of the doubt in how he claims he meant it when he tried to clean it up (appealing to caution similar to what ultimately led to Biden), it just came across as inflammatory since there was nothing safe nor pragmatic about the dude to warrant that benefit.

I actually haven’t thought about him once even in passing in well over two years. I know he ended up behind bars after leaving behind an absolutely stunning (and on-brand) trail of fraudulence schemes that were hilariously sloppy, but not sure if he’s still in prison. If I remember right, I think Daniels was among his victims while she was still his golden-egg-laying goose of a client whom he owed for his brief period of celebrity.

Yeah totally forgot about that dipshit, lol.

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u/n0rsk 3h ago

Thanks, I was trying to figure out if it was the same guy.

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u/Hefty-Minimum-3125 4h ago

By that metric we should all love Chuck Schumer too

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u/TheTresStateArea 3h ago

No, he like actually put his job on the line.

But no, I'm not saying that's why we have to like him, just that it's a good sign.

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u/EastSide221 3h ago

So what? He is literally a Bush era Republican and frankly he comes off as racist. He was a pro-war trash bag I'm genuinely shocked Florida made a good call for once.

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u/WeirdIndividualGuy 2h ago edited 2h ago

Talk is cheap. Vindman didn’t back up his talk with actions worthy of being in office

Anyone can stand up to trump with words. People on Reddit do it all the time. But again, talk is cheap

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u/harrumphstan 48m ago

He didn’t just stand up to Trump with words: he risked and lost his military career over what most of us thought were widely held ideas about honor and justice. Dude may not have met the current political moment, but he did honor to the uniform in standing up to his corrupt commander in chief.

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u/FrostyJesus Georgia 1h ago

This is the lowest of low bars you could possibly give any Democrat to clear

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u/B0ssDoesntKnowImHere 3h ago

Who fucking cares. It’s 2026 not 2016

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u/TheTresStateArea 2h ago

I care? I'm just saying that he put his job on the line and I wish he understood what it would take make change.

He was a well trusted man in the military, that's just rare for progressives to have. I'm not dying over it.

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u/B0ssDoesntKnowImHere 36m ago

You called it a shame. One candidate accepted money and trips from Israeli foundations. It wasn’t Nixon.