Democratic Senate candidate Angie Nixon visits Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood as she campaigns on August 29, 2026. | Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesLast month, Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon won the state’s Democratic Senate nomination in a major upset over her better-funded opponent, retired Army Lt. Col. Alex Vindman. Her victory was quickly slotted into a narrative about the Democratic Party’s insurgent progressive movement, which has triumphed in House and Senate primaries in Michigan, Colorado, New York, and elsewhere. But while Nixon supports progressive policies, she argues there’s more to the story than a simple progressive-versus-centrist tale. She says that she out-worked and out-organized her opponent — and that Floridians across the political spectrum are hungry for change. Vox’s Astead Herndon invited Nixon on a special pop-up episode of America, Actually to break down how she won the nomination, why she thinks there’s a path to victory in what many analysts believe is a solidly red state, and what she wants to get done as a senator if she prevails in November.Below is an excerpt of their conversation, edited for length and clarity. There’s much more in the full show, so listen to America, Actually wherever you get your podcasts or watch it on Vox’s YouTube channel.Why do you think your victory took so many by surprise?It took so many by surprise because people both tend to underestimate a Black woman — especially a progressive Black woman in politics — and then one who wasn’t able to raise as much money. But as a former single mom for 12 years, I know how to make a dollar stretch.This win is attributed to good old-fashioned grassroots organizing. I am a former union organizer. I am a community organizer, and I know the importance of people power and talking to people and getting them energized about why they should vote and why they should see themselves in this country.How much would you ascribe your win to the type of politics that you’re describing here versus the progressive policies that you championed? Should we take this as a sign that Medicare-for-all and “abolish ICE” have strong support in Florida?It’s all of it, right? It is the hard work that we put into this race to raise awareness about who I am and the policies and positions that I stand for, which are policies and positions that the majority of hardworking, everyday people stand for. Just because we want access to quality healthcare and affordable housing and fully funded public schools, they try to fear-monger and make it seem as though we are communist and we’re not.We are not communist. We are people who want to put hardworking, everyday people in power so that they can determine and shape what our communities look like and what our economies look like. There’s nothing radical or extreme about that.Democrats are still dismissing your chances to win a general election. Prominent pundits have said that Democrats should not invest in Florida, and that would amount to wasted money. Political forecasters moved the race in the Republican direction after your primary victory, arguing that the progressive politics makes it easier for Republicans to win in a state like Florida.I wanted to ask about electability. Can you give me the case for how you can win a statewide race amongst such skepticism? The same way that I was able to win a primary being outspent and out-raised 18 to 1. I am building a very unique, diverse coalition of people. We’ve had Republicans and independents that crossed over in the primary to vote for me in the primary. They also volunteer in our campaign. They’ve made donations. We literally have a bunch of Republicans and libertarians who have been stating that they are voting for me because they like that I am no-nonsense. They appreciate that I am trying to put a check on what is coming out of Washington, DC, all of the cruelty and the corruption, and that is the winning message.Look, we’re up against a woman, [incumbent Republican Sen. Ashley Moody], who allowed the theft of $10 million. She allowed money to be stolen from medically needy and low-income kids, to be diverted toward two citizen-led ballot initiatives that actually caused us to not have better health in our communities. People are frustrated, and that’s all Ashley Moody has done — just look out for herself, her campaign donors and these billionaires. People are ready for elected officials to stop bailing out these big businesses [and] actually look out for everyday people.In November 2023, you introduced a resolution to the Florida House calling for “the immediate de-escalation and ceasefire…in Israel and occupied Palestine.” It was rejected 104 to 2. And it earned you some bad blood with some of the members of the Florida Jewish Caucus. The chair actually said that the resolution was born out of ignorance and antisemitism.Obviously, the Democratic Party base has shifted on that issue over the last several years. There’s been an open discussion about whether Joe Biden and Kamala Harris did themselves damage in the 2024 election by not breaking more explicitly with Israel’s actions in Gaza.Do you think that was a mistake for Democrats?I would say yes. I would say that we have to have really uncomfortable conversations amongst our different communities and we just have to talk. But I feel that they did do a disservice in regards to just going along with the AIPAC lobby.You had mentioned that you don’t support sending any money or any weapons to Israel at this moment, but I also wanted to ask about things like BDS, the movement to boycott, divest, or sanction Israel. Is that something you support?It is. I’m a Black woman who is a descendant of slaves, and who is the descendant of people from the civil rights movement, and I know how we used boycotts and we used protest to gain our civil rights for our community. So I’m fully supportive of that.You repeatedly said that you don’t support defunding the police on your website. It says that you support demilitarizing the police. And that “real safety comes from good jobs, strong schools, affordable housing, and healthcare for all — not from more cameras, more cages, and more agents.”What is the difference between that and defunding?Whatever folks think the difference is. I’m not going to box myself in because I understand how they’ll try to cut and clip things with me saying certain words.But doesn’t that sound a little bit like lessening the resources that go to police to focus on other things? I mean, that sounds a little like the same thing.It sounds like I know that is my position. I want to defund Flock cameras because bad cops are stalking their ex-girlfriends and ex-boyfriends. And so to-may-toe, to-mah-toe. I literally said this before and that is what I am for. I’m not trying to get clipped in any kind of way.Let me ask you this way. I appreciate the focus on root causes, and I think you’ve laid that out that that’s where you want the energy to go — that real public safety comes from focusing on the things that cause people to commit crimes in the first place, but those often take a long time to show effect.If we’re talking about the root causes of crime, what is the message to someone whose community is unsafe right now that does not include policing?What I would say is, making sure that we invest in making sure people have more jobs and we invest in community control of the police. I totally believe in civil review boards and that type of thing, but I believe in making sure that people’s most basic needs are met. One of the things that I believe could help that right off the bat is things like universal healthcare, or at a minimum, extending the ACA subsidies so that we can drive down these healthcare premium costs. Or fully funding these programs that allow people to have access to first-time homebuyer programs. I was a single mom for 12 years, and I took part in the first-time homebuyer program that was funded from the federal government. That trickled down to the state and then to the local government. That helped me with down payment assistance as well as closing costs and those types of programs. We need to put policies in place that are allowing people to be good.We need to push for universal child care. For every $1 that is invested by the government, it puts $3 back into the economy so parents can get to work. They can be able to make sure that they have money to put their children in different programs. We need to invest in programs to keep our children off the streets.There’s been so much effort to put you in one of the boxes that have defined the Democratic ideological battles — DSA versus establishment. I hear in this interview how that doesn’t neatly fit with what it seems like you’ve done in Florida. Where do you think this campaign fits into the ongoing question of where do Democrats go next?We’re coalition builders, we’re aggregators. Folks should know, I was a vice chair of a local Democratic Party. I was also the field director and the political director with the state party. I have never fit in a box. I was a union member and I also led a statewide organization that was straight-up progressive.We need all these things to fight back against this Donald Trump regime. Look, this man is not going to leave willingly in 2028. He’s created a paramilitary force in the form of ICE that is getting away with shooting people and slaughtering them on camera while they’re masked without any accountability. They’re pushing to see how far they can go.Granted, Black people have been getting slaughtered on camera without accountability for a while, but now they are doing it to people who aren’t just Black, who aren’t just Latino. They are banking on us being normalized with what’s happening.First lady Michelle Obama says, “They go low, we go high.” I’m saying, “We get loud, we push back. We organize stronger and harder so that we can win and change this country and build a new vision for the next 250 years, where we have a Florida and an America for all.”