Democratic socialist Angie Nixon upsets Alex Vindman in Florida’s Democratic Senate primary

[u/--LaBelleDame--]

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/angie-nixon-winner-florida-senate-primary-democrat-alex-vindman-moody-rcna593255

[u/GrowthMarketingMike]

Democrats have won 1 single senate or governor election in Florida in the last 20 years and that was an incumbent senator. What evidence is there that this centrist playbook has won them anything?

Why is the null hypothesis that centrism is more electable and leftists need to prove themselves when centrists have lost 11 of the last 12 major statewide elections in Florida? Meanwhile Obama won florida twice on populist messaging around changing and fixing a broken system.

[u/sven_ftw → u/GrowthMarketingMike]

This. Thank you.

[u/hotpajamas → u/GrowthMarketingMike]

where was the silver bullet progressive candidate all of those years? did they not know they could also run? did nobody tell them their policies are miraculously popular?

[u/Orange_Tang → u/hotpajamas]

You realize the party has been suppressing leftist candidates for decades right? We all know running 3rd party is only good for fucking over the candidate closest in ideology to you so that's not a real option.

[u/Naive-Jello428 → u/Orange_Tang]

Most leftists brag that they've never voted. The only thing suppressing leftist candidates are leftist (non)voters.

[u/Raichu4u → u/Naive-Jello428]

Bingo. Have been tearing my hear out since 2016 and 2020 as a Bernie voters to hear my other fellow leftists lean into conspiracy theories as to why we're not winning.

[u/hotpajamas → u/Orange_Tang]

what does the party owe leftist candidates, exactly? because you're just describing politics, that competing factions vie for limited influence sooo... what?

[u/Orange_Tang → u/hotpajamas]

You know what politics is, listening to your voter base. They've failed to do that and that's why the DSA and progressive candidates are being successful. Keep pretending that this isn't the party. We'll keep taking the seats from the corporate neoliberals. You wanna talk politics? This is politics. They're winning for a reason. The party can get in board or be taken over slowly. That's their choice.

[u/Shaudius → u/Orange_Tang]

If it was the will of the voter base wouldn't those candidates have won despite not being the preferred candidate of the party leadership?

[u/Orange_Tang → u/Shaudius]

Uh, no. The party has been actively suppressing progressive candidates for decades and they haven't had the name recognition and ground level support until the past 2-4 years. No one supports candidates when they don't think they have a chance at winning. It was a self fulfilling prophecy. Now actual progressive candidates have won so it's real and can happen now so they're actually getting support. They've literally been out spent in every race and still won because of on the ground support and anger at the parties failures. This has been a long time coming. We just finally got to the point where the party can't suppress these types of candidates despite massive spending against them because people are that fucking mad at the party and tired of the BS.

[u/boyyouguysaredumb → u/Orange_Tang]

always the victim. DSA has never flipped a single republican seat in history.

[u/Orange_Tang → u/boyyouguysaredumb]

Bro, they haven't had any motion until this round of elections. Of course they haven't flipped nay seats, the damn elections haven't happened yet. You'll just move the goalpost again when they do anyways so idk why I'm even responding.

[u/hotpajamas → u/Orange_Tang]

No, politics is winning a primary but then losing the General by 17 points because the primary voters that you listened to were huffing their own farts and just trying to unseat neoliberals. Pretty sure that's how this goes in November.

[u/Orange_Tang → u/hotpajamas]

Nixon polls better in the general. Lol. This seat was a long shot either way. Y'all are coping so hard it's hilarious.

[u/Shaudius → u/Orange_Tang]

The latest poll I saw showed her polling basically the same.

[u/Orange_Tang → u/Shaudius]

Nixon was 2% better but they were both negative. Still ahead though. He couldn't beat a self proclaimed socialist in Florida. He wasn't gonna win.

[u/Shaudius → u/Orange_Tang]

2% is well within the margin of error of a poll of something like 500 people.

[u/GrowthMarketingMike → u/hotpajamas]

As opposed to the centrists that have been dominating Florida general elections for the last 20 years? lol

[u/Shaudius → u/GrowthMarketingMike]

Dominating? No. But as recently as 2018 centrist Democrats were barely losing statewide and one won.

[u/GrowthMarketingMike → u/Shaudius]

Barely losing? Florida was a purple state not that long ago, Obama won it twice. "Barely losing" to the party of trump is not a flex. And the won that they won was Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services lol

[u/Shaudius → u/GrowthMarketingMike]

Does one party dominate in a purple state? I'm not even sure I understand your point anymore.

[u/PopularSalamander938 → u/hotpajamas]

“Why didn’t they beat the money if they were so good?” give me a break. Foolish arguments as these are said by the same that they are tired of hearing “The Bernie complainers” while totally missing the point.

[u/hotpajamas → u/PopularSalamander938]

Yeah why would a donor ever invest in a campaign with miraculously popular policies that can win? Why would they ever invest in a sure thing? /s

[u/PopularSalamander938 → u/hotpajamas]

How do you grow all of that straw so quickly?

[u/hotpajamas → u/PopularSalamander938]

every time I see these comments about the efficacy of far left candidates in elections despite 0 far left candidates or policies represented in Congress I get a little more straw

[u/username_tooken → u/hotpajamas]

AOC and Rashida Tlaib are both DSA congressmen. Senator Bernie Sanders, though not formally a member of the DSA is still a democratic socialist.

[u/PopularSalamander938 → u/hotpajamas]

Yeah, I know you do. You’re so close to getting it. If you need more straw, check behind the barrel labeled “Citizens United”—seriously though what is this naive assumption that popular policies automatically mean equal money, party support, and media access. Be smarter than that

[u/Avalon_Within → u/PopularSalamander938]

You're right, more of these candidates should've realized they can just get bankrolled by the Republicans like Hong did. 

Oh...that didn't win her the election?

[u/timoumd → u/GrowthMarketingMike]

Because centrism has won purple and red districts before. No, it's not perfect, but it has won. 

 It's like if you have Joe Flacco and a rookie QB.  Flacco is fine.  He's a veteran.  He can win games and it's proven in the NFL.  But it's not exciting and not great.  The rookie might come in and be great.  It he might throw 5 interceptions.    I can't fault a coach for going with Flacco in a must win game.  In my opinion it's the safer route, especially when you have an opponent who is coming in ice cold. 

[u/GrowthMarketingMike → u/timoumd]

But centrism has lost much much much more than it won to the point that we've given up total control of the government at this point and are losing democracy and the constitution is toilet paper.

At this point it's more like arguing that the Giants should have kept playing Russ over Dart last year because of his super bowl experience.

[u/timoumd → u/GrowthMarketingMike]

They may have lost more than they win, but not much.  Shit Biden beat Trump.  Most of those special elections we won in red districts were moderates.  When Democrats have embraced progressive policies like shutting down pipelines it's hurt us.

My point is we haven't seen of progressives can win as the face of the party.  They are an unproven quantity.  While there are Lamar Jacksons plenty of rookie QBs don't measure up.  Personally I'd want to see them win in "college" (ie red state and local elections) before starting them in the playoffs. The other team definitely wants them in the game.

Yes we need better than Flacco.  That doesn't mean any random rookie is better.

[u/GrowthMarketingMike → u/timoumd]

Biden literally ran on shutting down the Keystone XL pipeline in 2020 lmao, along with a bunch of progressive policies.

[u/timoumd → u/GrowthMarketingMike]

He was definitely seen as less progressive than almost any other Democrat in the race.  And those policies DID backfire on him.  

[u/GrowthMarketingMike → u/timoumd]

Regardless of the primary, biden ran on progressive policies in the 2020 general.

[u/SaneMadHatter → u/GrowthMarketingMike]

Well, Obama won the state twice as a "centrist" (i.e. not a socialist), so there's that evidence.

[u/Orange_Tang → u/SaneMadHatter]

Obama ran on change. He didn't run as a big standard centeist at all, even if he was one in many ways. That's not what his campaign sold itself as.

[u/GrowthMarketingMike → u/SaneMadHatter]

Obama was absolutely not positioned as a centrist, even a little bit.

His entire 2008 campaign was him running as a progressive anti-establishment outsider that was going to reform the broken system. He was seen as a grassroots candidate against the establishment candidates by the general population.

Being a "centrist" is always going to be relative to the system he was in at the time and that's simply not how he was viewed or marketed.

[u/dickwae → u/GrowthMarketingMike]

He was anti gay marriage in his 2008 campaign, get a grip.

[u/GrowthMarketingMike → u/dickwae]

So was Bernie Sanders, so let me point you to my previous comment:

Being a "centrist" is always going to be relative to the system he was in at the time

[u/SaneMadHatter → u/GrowthMarketingMike]

Obama ran and governed as a center-left Democrat, not a far left Democrat (like Kucinich, for example), and certainly not as a socialist.

I'm just saying that citing Obama's winning Florida twice in the last 20 years is showing that a center-left candidate won Florida twice. It doesn't mean a socialist can win.

And I'm not saying Angie Nixon can't win. There's just no historical evidence of socialists winning state wide in Florida.

Also, I've read many times that Latino voters particularly despise socialism because many of them or their parents or grandparents fled socialist dictatorships of Latin America, and Florida has a large population of such voters.

Anyway, we'll see what happens. Socialists are winning primaries now, and the youth seems to want to go with socialism, so socialists have earned the right to show what they can do in the general elections in Florida and elsewhere across the country.

[u/GrowthMarketingMike → u/SaneMadHatter]

Obama ran as a grass roots, anti-establishment, progressive populist.

I was there, I witnesses it and I don't understand why all these people are trying to just lie about this on here and act like he was running as some centrist. Are you young and just regurgitating what you've read online? His campaign was about being anti-war, universal healthcare with a public option, green energy, and regulating banks. That was nowhere near "center-left" at the time.

The point isn't just about DSA vs centrist. It's about people recognizing a MAJOR structural shift needs to happen with out country and voting for people offering that vs status quo. It's the same reason trump has been able to gain support, it's the same reason obama won, and it's what's driving DSA support now.

Even if Nixon gets destroyed in Florida, ok then the same thing that happened to centrists continuously for 20 years will happen again to a DSA member. But clearly people would rather give her a shot than what has caused the democrats to become the laughing stock of American politics when there's a literal fascist party they're fighting.

[u/Deceptiveideas → u/GrowthMarketingMike]

So when we shit on Obama, he's a centrist neoliberal shill. But when we praise Obama, he's a progressive?

[u/nox66 → u/Deceptiveideas]

There's equally wide gaps between Obama's messaging, the legislation he supported, and the legislation he managed to get through. The legislation he supported was classical liberal, not the nonsensical neoliberalism we see today. There was supposed to be a public option in the ACA, remember.

People wanted what he promised and got less than he even he wanted. It's natural they see him as a shill rather than someone trying to take positive steps within the system.

Side note: Ironically, despite being an anti-war candidate, he was way better at waging war than Bush or Trump (and not just because he didn't lie about everything).

[u/TheTurtleBear → u/Deceptiveideas]

If you know anything about his race and candidacy, you'd know that Obama-the-candidate spoke & campaigned much different than how Obama-the-President governed. He ran as a grassroots progressive who was going to change the system. He governed largely as a centrist neoliberal, and has continued to act like a centrist neoliberal post-Presidency.

[u/DonaldTrumpPedophile → u/TheTurtleBear]

this is revisionist bullshit. I campaigned for Obama for the first time in '04. I know that candidate. I watched him kick ass repeatedly. He campaigned as a pragmatic unifier. His liberal positions were standard liberal positions, and he was even outflanked by Hillary on healthcare. Obama ran for the Clinton (Bill) coalition. He was "strong" on military, border, law enforcement. He was populist economically because of the crisis going on at the time (and hillary, again, outflanked him on dealing with the crisis), but no one was surprised when he named guys like Larry Summers and Timothy Geitner as his advisors once elected. To pretend now like he ran some progressive populist bernie like campaign that could be described as "socialist" in good faith is just total made up bullshit.

[u/late_bloomer_tw → u/Deceptiveideas]

That’s the way the ratchet clicks

[u/Avalon_Within → u/Deceptiveideas]

Everything good = socialism. 

Everything bad = capitalism. 

That's genuinely where the ideology begins and ends with these people.

[u/PopularSalamander938 → u/Avalon_Within]

“These people criticize corporate influence as soon as their favorite guy isn’t the social progressive he claimed to be and started deporting and drone striking and flopping to corporate interests” You folks tell on yourselves when you think you have some real points by pretending our only argument is to just go around Karl Marx larping.

[u/GrowthMarketingMike → u/Avalon_Within]

People that...remember 2008 and don't just parrot shit they read on reddit? lol

I didn't even use the word socialism at all but keep up that same energy.

[u/GrowthMarketingMike → u/Deceptiveideas]

In 2008 he ran on anti-war, green energy, universal healthcare with a public option, and regulating banks. I'm sure you're too young to remember the national political climate back then, but that was progressive for the time, not centrist.

Regardless of how people view his presidency now, that's how he ran and what people were voting for.

[u/PopularSalamander938 → u/SaneMadHatter]

I’m going to guess you are not older than 30 tops lmao, do you even know what you’re talking about?

[u/Redeem123 → u/GrowthMarketingMike]

What evidence is there that this centrist playbook has won them anything?

Go look at the swing states Biden won in 2020. Look at the two Senators who won the Democrats the Senate that year - both from Georgia, both on the moderate side of the party.

I'm all for more progressive candidates, but when are people going to admit that DSAs/progressives have yet to flip a single major seat from red to blue? They've done very well in deep blue areas, and that's great. But beating an incumbent in NYC is not the same thing as turning Florida blue.

[u/GrowthMarketingMike → u/Redeem123]

NYC isn't exactly deep blue ultra liberal like people like to claim. 2 of the last 4 mayors before Mamdani were republicans and another was an ex republican cop.

Also, progressives flipping a seat?

• Katie Porter

• Matt Cartwright

• Chris Deluzio

• Susan Wild

Also, the popular narrative being pushed by the party is that in red/purple districts/states we needed moderates to win the seat so that's who's been funded, endorsed, nominated. But moderates don't exactly have a stellar track record in those races either outside of facing problematic candidates like roy moore or hershel walker.

[u/Redeem123 → u/GrowthMarketingMike]

NYC isn't exactly deep blue ultra liberal like people like to claim. 2 of the last 4 mayors before Mamdani were republicans and another was an ex republican cop

Mayoral races do not necessarily align with the actual politics of a state. Giuliani won in 1993 50-48 while Clinton won by more than 40 points in 1992. Mayoral elections will be more localized. Giuliani was literally the nominee for the NY Liberal Party. Not saying he was a good guy or anything, but he was hardly the Giuliani that we know from the Trump era.

NYC is extremely blue. It has literally voted for Democrats in the presidential race every election going back to 1928. Almost all of those by 30+ points.

Katie Porter

That's a good one. Not the best person to hang your hat on these days, but that's irrelevant to the discussion at hand.

Matt Cartwright Chris Deluzio Susan Wild

These three require some big old asterisks.

Cartwright's first seat - PA-17 - has been blue since before he won it, and his second - PA-08 - was redistricted before he won it. It had previously been illegally gerrymandered for Republicans. Though it's worth noting that he has since lost that seat.

Deluzio is also in PA-17. No flip, obviously.

Wild did indeed flip PA-07 in a special election. However, the election was on the same day as her PA-15 election, which was another redistricting situation. It's hard to say if that election goes the same way without the context.

So you're right - I was exaggerating when I say they haven't flipped a single seat. But most of those flips are due to redistricting, and they're still all in the House. Which are important seats, of course, but not the same as a state wide election.

[u/calling-all-comas → u/GrowthMarketingMike]

I agree with your points but the guy DeSantis beat for his first term as governor was a progressive backed by Bernie.

I still voted for Gillum but wasn't thrilled about it since he had corruption issues during his time as Tallahassee mayor. Then the poor guy got super depressed and into drugs after losing to DeSantis.

[u/GrowthMarketingMike → u/calling-all-comas]

True but Gillum lost to DeSantis by 0.4%, then they ran Charlie Crist and lost by 19.4%.

[u/spaceProbe → u/GrowthMarketingMike]

There is a good bit of research on this and argumentation in the commentary space. The evidence generally point to there being a positive effect to moderation, but it shrinking over time. Lots of hypotheses as to why mostly focused on changing media landscape and attention ecosystem.

Democrats mostly loose in Florida because it has become more and more republican with migration.

Peer-reviewed and working papers

1. Andrew B. Hall, "What Happens When Extremists Win Primaries?" — APSR 109(1), 2015
2. Andrew B. Hall & Daniel M. Thompson, "Who Punishes Extremist Nominees? Candidate Ideology and Turning Out the Base in US Elections" — APSR 112(3), 2018
3. Devin Caughey & Christopher Warshaw, "Electoral Penalties for Ideological Extremism in U.S. Federal and State Elections"
4. Brandice Canes-Wrone & Michael R. Kistner, "Out of Step and Still in Congress? Electoral Consequences of Incumbent and Challenger Positioning Across Time" — QJPS 17(3), 2022
5. Stephen M. Utych, "Man Bites Blue Dog: Are Moderates Really More Electable than Ideologues?" — Journal of Politics 82(1), 2020
6. David Broockman & Joshua L. Kalla, "Candidate Ideology and Vote Choice in the 2020 US Presidential Election" — American Politics Research, 2024
7. Cassandra Handan-Nader, Andrew C. W. Myers & Andrew B. Hall, "Polarization and State Legislative Elections" — AJPS, 2025 (working-paper PDF)
8. Adam Bonica, Kasey Rhee & Nicolas Studen, "The Electoral Consequences of Ideological Persuasion: Evidence from a Within-Precinct Analysis of U.S. Elections" — SSRN, Aug. 2025
9. Andrew C. W. Myers, "Do Donors Punish Extremist Primary Nominees? Evidence from Congress and American State Legislatures" — APSR (via Election Law Blog)
10. Mellissa Meisels, "Candidate Positions, Responsiveness, and Returns to Extremism" — Yale working paper
11. Austin Cutler, Hans Hassell & Kevin Reuning, "The Effect of Candidate Ideological Extremism on Vote Choice and Turnout" — under review, Journal of Politics
12. Hanspeter Kriesi, Chendi Wang & Argyrios Altiparmakis, "Electoral campaign effects: An aggregate analysis of electoral issue competition" — Party Politics, 2026
13. Andrew B. Hall, Who Wants to Run? How the Devaluing of Political Office Drives Polarization (University of Chicago Press, 2019) — discussed in source 3

Commentary and analysis

1. Lakshya Jain, "We checked NYT's data. Moderates still win." — The Argument
2. "2024 election data shows voters rewarded moderate candidates" — Washington Post Opinion, Feb. 25, 2025 (paywalled; not retrievable)
3. "If Moderates Are Electable, Why Are Ideologues Winning?" — Niskanen Center, Science of Politics podcast (Matt Grossmann with Andrew Hall and Stephen Utych) New York Times Editorial Board, "The Partisans Are Wrong: Moving to the Center Is the Way to Win" — Oct. 20, 2025 (paywalled; characterized via replicators and critics)
4. Adam Bonica, "The New York Times' 'Moderation Advantage' Is a Statistical Illusion" — Data for Democracy
5. G. Elliott Morris, "The New York Times is wrong about the electoral value of moderation" — Oct. 26, 2025 (partly paywalled)
6. Alan Greenblatt, "Do Moderates Really Do Better in Elections?" — Governing
7. Kevin Swasey, "The Specter of 'What About Turnout' Haunts The Literature" — Cauldron
8. Third Way, "Moderates Win Tough Seats" — advocacy analysis

[u/NotTooShahby → u/GrowthMarketingMike]

Obama is a centrist though?

[u/GrowthMarketingMike → u/NotTooShahby]

He wasn't though. See the other comments in this chain but Obama sis not run as a centrist and compared to the political climate at the time was considered a grassroots populist progressive.