Socialist Florida Senate candidate Angie Nixon, the Israel-bashing state lawmaker who won her primary election in a shock upset over Democrat Alex Vindman last week, gushed over the notorious Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in a series of speeches at fundraising events for the pro-Hamas advocacy group following the 2024 elections.
Nixon got her big break in November 2023, when she introduced a resolution in the Florida House calling for a ceasefire in Israel's war against Hamas, a measure which was widely panned as antisemitic by many of her colleagues and roundly rejected on a bipartisan 104-2 vote.
But to CAIR—which was designated as an unindicted co-conspirator of a Hamas front group in 2007—the failed resolution made Nixon a star. CAIR's Florida chapter honored Nixon by making her a distinguished speaker at three fundraising galas from November 2024 through February 2025, where she declared those who voted against her resolution her "permanent enemies," ranted against the "false capitalistic American dream," and praised CAIR as the "right vehicles" to secure electoral victories for Democrats in speeches she closed by quoting a notorious Marxist convicted cop-killer.
"This past presidential election was our Brexit event, and we need to start working on building the right vehicles. And the right vehicles are CAIR Florida," Nixon said as she addressed CAIR Florida's gala in Jacksonville in February 2025.
During her November 2024 speech at CAIR Florida's Tampa gala, Nixon declared that "our oppressor" is "those in power" and that "we are in chains" because most politicians have embraced "respectability politics and assimilation."
"Let me be clear, we are in chains," Nixon said. "Those chains are keeping us from realizing our shared power of demanding and accomplishing a ceasefire in Palestine. … Those chains are keeping us from showing up and demanding the cops find the killers of black trans women."
Nixon, who joined the Democratic Socialists of America in June, in January 2025 also spoke at a CAIR Florida gala hosted in Panama City, where she complained about having to "drive through some old sundown towns and saw some flags that I don't like" to get to the event. Her three speeches on the CAIR speech circuit followed the same basic structure and were delivered with the apparent intention of raising money for CAIR, an unindicted co-conspirator in a landmark 2007 terrorist financing case that culminated in the conviction of the founders of the Holy Land Foundation for funneling $12 million to Hamas.
"I'm really humbled to have been asked to speak again at a CAIR Florida gala. I'm happy that it is in Jacksonville because, whew, driving to Panama City and to Tampa is a lot," Nixon said during her last appearance on the CAIR speech circuit. "We're going to raise the most money in the state, right, today."
During her three CAIR speeches, Nixon declared her campaign to secure a ceasefire in Gaza as the defining civil rights fight for Millennials and Gen Z. Nixon closed each of her speeches by quoting Assata Shakur, a member of the Black Liberation Army, a Marxist militant group devoted to "killing cops." Naturally, Shakur was convicted in 1977 of the first-degree murder of a New Jersey state trooper but later escaped from prison in 1979 and fled to Cuba. Shakur was on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list when she died of natural causes in Cuba in September 2025.
"As the famous freedom fighter Assata Shakur said, 'It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love—we must love and support one another. We have nothing to lose but our chains.'"
CAIR Action, CAIR's political arm, congratulated Nixon on her upset primary victory last week in a Facebook post hailing her for "calling for a ceasefire and justice for Palestinians" and for having "consistently championed progressive causes." Nixon will face incumbent Republican senator Ashley Moody in November in a special election to finish out the final two years of the seat vacated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Recent polls show Moody is the overwhelming favorite in the race.
Nixon's embrace of CAIR could land her in hot water due to two recent actions from Florida governor Ron DeSantis (R.). DeSantis signed an executive order in December 2025 designating CAIR as a foreign terrorist organization, a ruling that a federal judge placed on hold as CAIR challenges it in court. Then, in April, DeSantis signed another bill into law that makes it a felony to knowingly offer "material support" to any state-designated terrorist organization.
The Nixon campaign did not return a request for comment.
