Angie Nixon, a Florida Senate candidate aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America, used a weekend rally to mock Vice President JD Vance’s appearance and defend herself after Vance told her to leave the country over her political views.
Speaking alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) at a get-out-the-vote event in Tallahassee, Florida, Nixon told supporters, “They nasty. They lying. The truth ain’t in them.” She continued, “They push back on the truth with lies. We need to push back on lies with the truth. Again, this ain’t my campaign. This is our campaign.”
Nixon then turned to her opponent, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, along with President Trump and Vance. “But Ashley Moody, Donald Trump, JD Vance with his eyeliner – y’all know that man told me to get out of this country,” she said. “Shame on him.”
Nixon, who is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America but publicly rejects the socialist label, added that her “ancestors helped build this thing,” referring to government buildings. “The very buildings he’s walking around in,” she said. “But listen, they can call me whatever they want to call me. They can say whatever they want to say. But with your help, on November 3, they will be calling me senator.”
What Vance Actually Said
The exchange stems from remarks Vance made on the campaign trail in Lakeland, Florida, where he argued that candidates who embrace socialism don’t belong in the country.
“I hate to say it, right here in the state of Florida, as reasonable and rational and freedom-loving as this state is, you’ve got some real choice Democrats running in the state of Florida,” Vance said. “Look no further than Angie Nixon, the self-described — it’s almost too easy to make fun of her — the self-described socialist that the Democrats put up against Ashley Moody this fall.”
Vance pointed to Florida’s large population of immigrants from Latin America who fled socialist governments. “Now, one of the things I love about Florida is you have so many people who came to this state legally, of course, from Latin America, people who know that socialism kills, people who saw it in their friends and their family,” he said. “Well, ladies and gentlemen, when Angie Nixon calls herself a socialist, I think the right response is to say, then get the hell out of here. You don’t belong in America if those are your views.”
Nixon’s Response
Rather than directly answering Vance’s argument about socialism, Nixon returned to personal jabs. “I don’t wanna COUCH my words here: I know JD Vance, his eyeliner, and absent Ashley Moody are used to running away from people when things get tough because they care more about themselves and their billionaire buddies than the people they represent,” she said. “But this is my home.”
She also posted online that “the most ordinary man imaginable came to my home state to tell me to ‘get out of America’ while they enjoyed the comfort of buildings my ancestors built,” adding, “Imagine standing on the shoulders of the ppl who built this country & then telling their descendants they don’t belong here.”
Nixon is not the only candidate on the left invoking ancestry to defend socialist politics. Colorado congressional candidate Melat Kiros has similarly described coming from generations of “proud, proud black socialists and radicals and fighters” who linked racial justice to economic justice.
The Florida Senate race between Nixon and Moody is set for November 3.
