Nixon upsets Vindman in Florida Democratic Senate primary

Progressive Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon scored an upset victory Tuesday over Alex Vindman in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, setting up a November race against Republican Sen. Ashley Moody, who won her party’s nomination as she seeks to keep the seat she was appointed to fill.

NBC News projected Nixon’s win over Vindman, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, Iraq War veteran and former National Security Council aide who became nationally known for his role in President Donald Trump’s first impeachment proceedings. The Associated Press projected both Nixon’s and Moody’s primary victories, CBS News reported.

Vindman entered the race with major national attention and a large fundraising advantage. NBC News reported that he raised $16 million, a significant sum for a Democrat running in red-leaning Florida, and that he was widely viewed as the favorite before Tuesday’s contest. Nixon, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, argued that her campaign could show there is room for insurgent progressive politics in Florida.

“Florida: the choice is OURS,” Nixon wrote on social media in her closing message. “We will decide our future, not billionaire donors or the establishment politics of DC.”

Nixon, 42, has represented parts of the Jacksonville area in the Florida House since 2020. During the primary, she emphasized her roots in the state and promoted progressive policies including Medicare for All, free child care, paid family and sick leave, and a national rent freeze, according to CBS News. She also regularly criticized Vindman for having moved to Florida only recently.

Vindman largely avoided engaging Nixon directly, NBC News reported, and the two never met for a primary debate. Instead, he tried to keep his focus on Moody.

Vindman drew national attention in 2019 when, as a National Security Council aide, he testified to Congress about a phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump had pressed for an investigation into Joe Biden, then a Democratic presidential candidate. The testimony helped lead to Trump’s first impeachment by the House. Trump was later acquitted by the Senate, and Vindman was fired from the NSC.

On the Republican side, Moody defeated several lesser-known challengers, including Army veteran Chris Gleason, physician Neelam Perry and minister Ernie Rivera, according to CBS News. Moody, 51, is a former Florida attorney general who described herself in the campaign as a fifth-generation Floridian with a record of supporting law enforcement and pushing for safer communities.

Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Moody to the Senate after Marco Rubio left the seat. NBC News reported that Moody is running for a full six-year term after Rubio was nominated by Trump to be secretary of state; CBS News reported that Moody is running in a special election to serve the remainder of Rubio’s term, which ends in early 2029.

Moody served as Florida attorney general from 2019 until her Senate appointment in January 2025. Before that, she worked as a commercial litigator and federal prosecutor and became Florida’s youngest circuit court judge in 2007, according to CBS News. In the Senate, she has been a reliable supporter of Trump’s agenda and received his endorsement last month. Trump said she is “doing a tremendous job representing the incredible people of Florida.”

The general election gives Democrats a longshot pickup opportunity in a state that has shifted increasingly Republican. Florida last elected a Democrat to the Senate in 2012. Republicans hold 53 Senate seats, meaning Democrats would need a net gain of four seats to take control of the chamber, while also defending several of their own seats.