Socialists come for Florida Democrats as DSA tries to plant its flag in Trump country

BS BULLETIN

Florida Democrats vote Tuesday in two primaries testing the growing power of the socialist left.
DSA-backed Oliver Larkin is challenging pro-Israel Rep. Jared Moskowitz in a newly drawn swing district.
Larkin backs abolishing the Senate, abolishing ICE and ending U.S. military aid to Israel.

Florida voters head to the polls Tuesday, and buried among the races for governor and U.S. Senate is a fascinating experiment for the Democratic Party: Can the socialist insurgency that has been rattling Democrats around the country successfully invade Florida?

The marquee ideological showdown is in Florida’s newly redrawn 25th Congressional District, where two-term Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz faces Oliver Larkin, a Democratic Socialists of America member and former Bernie Sanders organizer who has made no effort to disguise just how far left he wants to take the party.

The contest arrives after progressive victories elsewhere this primary season and has become one of the clearest tests yet of whether the DSA brand can travel beyond deep-blue urban territory into a competitive congressional district.

The Associated Press describes Tuesday’s Florida primaries as an important test of both parties following a dramatic redrawing of the state’s congressional map.

And Larkin isn’t offering voters socialism with the serial numbers filed off. In a DSA forum earlier this summer, he introduced himself with, “Hello, comrades,” and described his campaign as one for “Medicare for All, abolishing ICE, ending U.S. military support for Israel” and “anti-Zionist principles.”

Well. Nobody can accuse the man of burying the lede.

Larkin has also said he wants to abolish the United States Senate, calling it an “undemocratic institution.” He has supported enforcement of the International Criminal Court warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and described Israel’s governing coalition as a “religious supremacist regime.”

That puts him on a collision course with Moskowitz, a Jewish Democrat who has been one of his party’s outspoken supporters of Israel.

Florida’s 25th isn’t some safely socialist Brooklyn enclave where the Democratic primary effectively decides the election. The newly configured Broward County-centered district is competitive territory, which makes Larkin particularly important to the DSA’s national ambitions. The Guardian reported that his campaign has attracted more than 75 volunteers and raised more than $1 million while trying to demonstrate that democratic socialism can work in an older, wealthier and politically purple electorate.

Moskowitz, however, entered the closing stretch with an enormous financial advantage. Florida Politics reported earlier this month that the incumbent’s available campaign cash exceeded Larkin’s by more than 11-to-1.

But the ideological battle has increasingly centered on Israel.

That exploded again in the final days of the campaign when Larkin appeared on WPLG’s “This Week in South Florida” and was challenged over his accusation that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

Host Glenna Milberg pushed back on Larkin’s characterization and questioned his assertions about international findings and the Israeli military. The contentious interview ended shortly afterward, providing one more burst of attention just before Election Day.

The Israel divide spilled beyond the Moskowitz race over the weekend.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib was scheduled to appear at a South Florida rally supporting Larkin, congressional candidate Elijah Manley and U.S. Senate candidate Angie Nixon. The Fort Lauderdale venue canceled the event amid controversy and security concerns. Organizers planned to relocate it.

Larkin has also received support from socialist streamer Hasan Piker, adding another familiar name to the progressive coalition attempting to push Democrats leftward.

And Moskowitz isn’t the only veteran Democrat watching the rebellion arrive at his doorstep.

Former DNC chair and 11-term Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is fighting for survival in the newly configured 20th District, where progressive challenger Elijah Manley is among a crowded field trying to knock her out.

That contest has its own political fireworks.

The district is majority-Black and has been represented by Black members of Congress for roughly three decades. Wasserman Schultz, who is White and lives outside the newly drawn district, has been attacked by rivals over her decision to run there after Republican-led redistricting scrambled South Florida’s congressional boundaries.

Manley, a 27-year-old substitute teacher backed by progressive organizations, has made the representation issue part of his case against Wasserman Schultz. The New York Post reported Monday that he accused her of running in a majority-Black district at the expense of Black political representation.

So Tuesday isn’t merely another Florida primary. It is another round in the Democrats’ increasingly unavoidable argument over what their party is becoming.

Larkin himself has been remarkably candid about the larger project. DSA’s own publication says he was the organization’s first federal endorsement of the 2026 election cycle. The group has openly presented his campaign as part of a broader electoral push for socialism.

That makes Florida a particularly intriguing battlefield.

This is a state Democrats once treated as the ultimate presidential swing state. Today, Republicans dominate statewide politics, Donald Trump calls Florida home, and Democrats are trying to figure out how to become competitive again.

And into that environment marches a candidate promising to abolish ICE, abolish the United States Senate and end military support for Israel.

That is certainly one theory of how to win Florida back.

MY QUICK TAKE:

I miss the days when Democrats tried to convince Florida voters they weren’t socialists.

Now we’ve got a candidate opening a political event with “Hello, comrades.”

Folks, when your opponents call you socialist and your response is essentially, “Actually, we prefer democratic socialist, comrade,” the Republican attack-ad department may qualify for unemployment benefits. And consider the sales pitch here.

Florida. A state filled with people who either escaped socialism, know somebody who escaped socialism, or listened to their parents and grandparents explain exactly why they escaped socialism.

Naturally, this is where somebody decided to test-market more socialism.

Then there’s the platform: abolish ICE, abolish the Senate, cut military aid to Israel. Anything else? Maybe abolish Publix?

Careful with that one, comrades. Floridians will tolerate a lot, but you come for the Pub Sub and this revolution is OVER.

Whatever happens Tuesday night, Democrats have a much bigger problem than one congressional primary. The people they once dismissed as the fringe aren’t standing outside the party yelling anymore.

They’re inside the house. They’re raising money. They’re winning primaries. And increasingly, they’re not whispering the S-word.

They’re campaigning on it.

DBS WIRE SOURCES: