The Daily BS • Bo Snerdley Cuts Through It!
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Yes, of course, Trump gloated just a little as Alexander Vindman lost Florida Senate primary, BIGLY

by

BS BULLETIN

  • Democratic socialist state Rep. Angie Nixon stunned Florida politics Tuesday, defeating Alexander Vindman roughly 56%-44% for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination.
  • Vindman raised roughly $16 million while Nixon raised under $1 million — yet she beat him by about 12 points.
  • Nixon now faces Republican Sen. Ashley Moody, who easily won her own primary, in November.

If there was one name on Tuesday night’s Florida ballot that virtually every political junkie in America already knew, it was Alexander Vindman.

Apparently Florida Democrats knew him, too. They just didn’t want him.

In one of the biggest upsets of Tuesday’s primaries, state Rep. Angie Nixon, a 42-year-old democratic socialist from Jacksonville, defeated the nationally famous former Army lieutenant colonel who became a liberal hero for his role in the first impeachment of President Donald Trump.

And this wasn’t some 50.1%-49.9% squeaker requiring three recounts and a battalion of election lawyers.

Nixon beat Vindman by approximately 56% to 44%. A twelve-point thumping.

President Trump, unsurprisingly, enjoyed himself. After spending years treating Vindman as one of the villains of the first impeachment saga, Trump celebrated his former antagonist’s defeat Tuesday night. But here’s what makes the result much bigger than another round of Trump-Vindman score-settling: Vindman was absolutely swimming in money.

The Guardian reports Vindman’s campaign raised approximately $16.3 million compared with just $975,000 for Nixon. Breitbart puts Vindman’s haul at roughly $16.2 million. Sixteen million dollars. Nixon didn’t merely beat the establishment favorite. She beat a candidate who had a financial advantage that looked like the New York Yankees playing a Little League team. And she beat him comfortably.

Vindman entered politics with something most first-time Senate candidates would kill for: national name recognition.

He became a household name in 2019 while serving on the National Security Council, when his testimony concerning Trump’s telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky became a central element of the House impeachment inquiry.

For Democrats, Vindman became a symbol of resistance to Trump. For Trump and millions of MAGA voters, he became something else entirely. Either way, everybody knew the name. But presidential impeachment celebrity does not necessarily translate into a constituency in Florida.

Nixon built hers differently. The Washington Post reports she assembled support from organized labor, Black churches and the democratic socialist movement while Vindman largely concentrated his campaign fire on Republican Ashley Moody rather than treating Nixon as a serious threat. That turned out to be a rather expensive miscalculation. Nixon also hammered Vindman for declining to debate her.

And while Vindman had the national donor network, Nixon had the ideological energy. She joined the Democratic Socialists of America and won support from prominent members of the party’s progressive wing, including Reps. Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley. When the votes were counted, grassroots socialism beat Trump-era celebrity. Badly.

And Nixon isn’t hiding what she believes. Republicans will now have an opponent who is substantially harder to portray as a conventional Democrat. They don’t have to. Nixon is doing that work for them.

Her agenda includes Medicare for All, a $25 federal minimum wage, new taxes on billionaires and rent freezes. She has also been outspoken on Gaza and introduced a ceasefire resolution in the Florida Legislature. The New York Post reports Nixon also supports abolishing ICE and ending U.S. aid to Israel. That’s going to make for quite the general election in Florida.

And Nixon’s victory represents something larger inside the Democratic Party. Axios calls it the Democratic Socialists of America’s biggest statewide breakthrough yet, reporting that Nixon became the first DSA member to win a major-party nomination for statewide office.

The state where Republicans have spent years campaigning explicitly against socialism just nominated a democratic socialist for the United States Senate on the Democratic ticket.

Vindman, to his credit, didn’t sulk publicly after the defeat.

He conceded and endorsed Nixon. “Who would’ve ever thought that a Jewish refugee would make it to the U.S. Army, to the White House, and to becoming a candidate for the U.S. Senate?” Vindman wrote after the race.

“I still believe in the American Dream, because I’ve lived it. It’s worth fighting for.”

Then came the endorsement: “Rep. Nixon ran a strong campaign. I will be standing by her side in the fight against Ashley Moody.”

That’s gracious. It also means the former Trump impeachment witness who raised more than $16 million to become Florida’s next senator will now be campaigning to elect a member of the Democratic Socialists of America instead. Politics makes strange bedfellows. Sometimes overnight.

Ashley Moody gets the matchup Republicans wanted. While Democrats were producing the shocker of the night, Republican Sen. Ashley Moody cruised through her primary with nearly 80% of the vote.

Moody was appointed to the Senate in January 2025 to replace Marco Rubio after Rubio left the chamber to join the Trump administration. She is now seeking to complete the remainder of Rubio’s term. Florida is no longer the perennial coin-flip state of Bush-Gore political lore. Trump won it decisively. Republicans dominate statewide government. And Reuters notes that Nixon’s nomination may actually make an already difficult Democratic pickup opportunity harder in November.

The Wall Street Journal likewise describes Nixon as a long shot against Moody. Which presents Democrats with one fascinating question this morning.

Did their voters just nominate the future of the party? Or did they nominate Ashley Moody’s favorite possible opponent?

DBS WIRE SOURCES:

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