Angie Nixon—the Democratic Socialist nominee for Senate in Florida who lost her election by 3 points despite the "blue tsunami" that swept many far-left Democrats to surprise victories—is keeping busy since her loss, accusing Democrats of racism, starting her own PAC, and lashing out at critics.
Nixon’s flurry of action highlights the growing divide within the Democratic Party between progressives and moderates as it prepares to take sizable majorities in Congress. In the latest sign of discontent, buoyed by support from progressives, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D., Md.) announced on Thursday he would challenge Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) for Senate majority leader.
It also suggests that Nixon—who is angry that national Democrats didn’t invest more in her race—intends to play a role in that fight while potentially laying the foundation for a future run.
"It is so wrong and disrespectful for people to not invest in black leadership," Nixon said, blasting Democratic bosses during a podcast interview with the fired CNN personality Don Lemon on Tuesday.
Making an allusion to slavery, she said, "I think people want our labor—they don't want our leadership."
She directly accused Democratic leaders of racism. "People are saying that I, like, statewide, I came in last, as far as statewide," she continued. "But that is because, you know, there's racism within the Republican Party and there's racism within the Democratic Party."
Much of the conversation with Lemon revolved around why Nixon's campaign was outfundraised by most other Democratic Senate campaigns.
Nixon, for example, raised less than $1 million before the Florida primary in August, far below the more than $16 million her main opponent raised, according to FEC data. And by mid-October, the latest filings show, she had raised just $11.3 million, just the 39th-most among all Senate campaigns and significantly less than the amount that senators-elect James Talarico (Texas), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Abdul El-Sayed (Mich.), Roy Cooper (N.C.), and Troy Jackson (Maine) reeled in.
One black Democrat who did win a surprise victory in the South is Scott Colom in Mississippi. He too has complained of a similar lack of investment by national Democrats in his campaign. On Thursday, he suggested that he may not support Schumer for majority leader and that national Democrats needed to care more about the Deep South.
In her conversation with Lemon, Nixon also blamed Israel. She told him that her anti-Israel activism and rhetoric contributed to her relatively low fundraising figures: "Many folks told me that—yeah, a lot of the donors, a lot of the donors said that." As a state representative, Nixon authored a November 2023 resolution calling for a ceasefire in Israel's war against Hamas, something that both Democrats and Republicans characterized as antisemitic. She also delivered speeches at several events organized in 2024 by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a pro-Hamas advocacy group that Florida's state government has classified as a domestic terrorist organization.
It's not the first time since the election that Nixon has decided to lash out. After a conservative Florida media figure teased Nixon for her habit of dancing on the campaign trail, she hit back by saying he always has "some slick shit to say" and suggesting he is a racist.
The Lemon interview, meanwhile, came a week after Nixon announced on November 5 that she would launch a new political action committee, the Never Scared PAC, which she said is about "taking everything we built during this campaign and turning it into something that lasts."
"Our mission is simple: to build the political and economic power of everyday hardworking people so they can determine the future of their communities and shape the economies that sustain them," she went on. "They told us Florida wasn't worth fighting for. But we were never scared to take on the political establishments, all sides of the political establishment. And we're not scared of the work ahead."
According to the PAC's initial federal filing, Nixon hired the D.C.-based MBA Consulting Group to manage its operations and accounting. MBA has provided those services for a number of Democratic-aligned PACs and campaigns, including Virginia senator Mark Warner's Forward Together PAC, former Florida congresswoman Stephanie Murphy's Center Aisle PAC, California congressman Adam Gray's campaign, and the unsuccessful 2022 campaigns of Florida's Val Demings and North Carolina's Cheri Beasley.
Nixon has remained coy about whether she plans to run for elected office again, but the creation of the PAC and her comments to Lemon suggest that she plans to stay active in Democratic politics at minimum. And in her concession speech on election night, Nixon appeared to suggest she would again run for her opponent Ashley Moody's Senate seat in 2028. Moody will have to face voters again in only two years, as she was initially appointed to fill the seat vacated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
"We may have lost this battle, but the war is not over," she remarked to cheers from her supporters. "2028 is around the corner. So, Ashley Moody, you better get it right 'cause we're coming for you."
Nixon—whose personal income has skyrocketed, thanks in large part to $130,000 in unexplained wages from an obscure company linked to a powerful Florida labor union and high-level anti-ICE activist—remains under state investigation for allegedly soliciting donations through her charity after the charity's license for such activity had expired. Weeks after Florida investigators launched that probe, a D.C. watchdog group filed a broad complaint alleging that Nixon violated multiple laws, including wire fraud laws related to the management of her nonprofit. "Ms. Nixon and any of her accomplices should be criminally prosecuted for committing this fraudulent solicitation scheme," the complaint stated.
Following those allegations, Nixon attempted to distance herself from the charity, saying she resigned from the charity months prior. She still identified herself in federal filings earlier this month as a director of the nonprofit.
Nixon undoubtedly led the charity when it raised $270,000 in 2024 but failed to file the legally required tax form with the IRS detailing how it used that money.
In addition, hours before polls closed on Election Day, Nixon quietly amended her financial disclosures to include five new liabilities: a student loan, unpaid tax debt, a business loan, a car loan, and an undisclosed "revolving charge."
Her finances were not the only source of criticism Nixon faced.
Inside her Cafe Resistance bookstore in Jacksonville, Nixon created a shrine to black power militants, including several convicted of murdering police officers, the Washington Free Beacon reported. She has defended the shrine, saying that "more people need to learn their history."
