TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — State Rep. Angie Nixon scored one of Florida’s biggest Election Night upsets Tuesday, defeating heavily funded former Army Lt. Col. Alex Vindman to win the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate.
Nixon captured 56.1% of the vote compared with 43.9% for Vindman, according to Associated Press results, delivering a decisive victory despite entering the primary at an enormous financial disadvantage.
The Jacksonville Democrat now advances to the Nov. 3 general election against Republican U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody, who won the Republican nomination Tuesday. The special election will determine who serves the final two years of the Senate term previously held by Marco Rubio.
Rubio left the Senate after becoming secretary of state, and then-Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Moody, Florida’s former attorney general, to fill the vacancy.
Nixon Overcomes Massive Fundraising Gap
Perhaps the most striking element of Nixon’s victory was the financial disparity between the two Democratic candidates.
Vindman reported raising approximately $16.3 million, compared with roughly $975,000 for Nixon, according to federal campaign-finance figures through late July.
That means Vindman raised more than 16 times as much money as the candidate who ultimately defeated him.
Vindman entered the race with a national profile developed largely through his role in President Donald Trump’s first impeachment.
A retired Army lieutenant colonel and former National Security Council official, Vindman testified during the 2019 impeachment proceedings about Trump’s interactions with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Nixon, by comparison, built her political career in Jacksonville and the Florida Legislature.
She represents Florida House District 13, covering portions of Duval County, and was first elected to the House in 2022.
Progressive Campaign Delivers Upset
Nixon campaigned as a progressive alternative to Vindman and received backing from the Democratic Socialists of America.
Her campaign emphasized issues including affordability, health care and higher wages. National reporting following Tuesday’s results described the victory as part of a broader series of wins by progressive candidates challenging more establishment-aligned Democrats.
The result was particularly notable because Vindman’s fundraising advantage had made him one of the best-financed Democratic Senate candidates in the country.
But money did not translate into enough votes Tuesday.
Nixon won by more than 12 percentage points.
Vindman conceded the race and publicly pledged to support Nixon against Moody in November.
“Rep. Nixon ran a strong campaign,” Vindman wrote following the result, according to The Associated Press. He said he would stand with Nixon in the general-election fight against Moody.
Moody Awaits Nixon in November
Nixon now faces a substantially different political challenge.
Moody enters the general election as an incumbent Republican senator in a state where Republicans have strengthened their electoral position in recent cycles.
Reuters reported Wednesday that Nixon’s victory could make an already difficult Democratic effort to capture the seat more challenging, characterizing Vindman as the more centrist candidate in the primary.
But polling conducted before the primary offered an interesting counterpoint.
A University of North Florida Public Opinion Research Lab survey released in July showed Moody leading Nixon 50% to 42%, while Moody led Vindman 50% to 40% in hypothetical general-election matchups.
Those numbers represented a snapshot before either party had selected its nominee and should not be treated as a forecast of the November result.
Moody also enters the general election with substantial campaign resources. Federal campaign-finance data through late July showed her campaign had raised approximately $11.3 million and retained about $8.5 million cash on hand.
Florida Senate Race Moves to General Election
The Nixon-Moody contest will now become one of Florida’s major statewide races heading into November.
Unlike a regular six-year Senate election, the winner will complete the remaining two years of Rubio’s term and would face voters again in 2028 for a full term.
For Nixon, Tuesday’s victory demonstrated that a large fundraising disadvantage and an opponent with national name recognition were not enough to prevent her from winning the Democratic electorate.
For Democrats, the question now becomes whether Nixon can translate that primary coalition into a competitive statewide campaign against Moody.
For Republicans, Moody will seek to defend a Senate seat the party already controls while campaigning alongside a statewide Republican ticket headed by gubernatorial nominee Byron Donalds.
And after an upset few expected at the beginning of the campaign, Nixon will enter that contest as Florida Democrats’ nominee for the U.S. Senate.
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