Socialist Scores Major Upset, Stuns Trump Impeachment Witness In Senate Primary

News admin August 19, 2026 0 Comments

Socialist Scores Major Upset, Stuns Trump Impeachment Witness In Senate Primary

Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), scored a major upset Tuesday night by defeating former Trump impeachment witness Alex Vindman for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate.

Nixon, a leftist firebrand from Jacksonville, will face Sen. Ashley Moody (R-FL) in November to determine who will serve the final two years of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s Senate term.

The upset is a major victory for the Democratic Party’s Left-wing — and potentially a major boost for Republicans in a state President Donald Trump won by 13 points in 2024.

Vindman vastly outraised Nixon during the primary, bringing in roughly $16.3 million compared to Nixon’s $975,000. Nixon instead relied heavily on grassroots organizing, unions and left-wing activists.

Nixon joined the DSA in June and is also a member of the Working Families Party and the Service Employees International Union. She received endorsements from far-Left lawmakers including Reps. Maxwell Frost (D-FL), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).

Her victory marks the first time a self-avowed democratic socialist has won a Democratic Senate or gubernatorial primary this cycle. The socialist upset comes two weeks after Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed squeaked out a narrow victory over the establishment-backed candidate in his own Democratic primary. While El-Sayed has said he is “not technically or practically DSA” — he ran as a leftist, aligned with the party’s democratic socialist wing, and received campaign support from prominent socialists including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

President Donald Trump also weighed in on the upset Tuesday night, celebrating Nixon’s victory while taking a swipe at her defeated opponent, former White House national security official Alexander Vindman. “SleazeBag Vindman loses tonight to a Radical Left Lunatic. How cool is that???” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Vindman became a prominent figure during Trump’s first impeachment after testifying before Congress about a 2019 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Vindman, who was serving as a National Security Council aide at the time, testified that Trump had pressured Zelensky to look into his political rivals, including the Biden family.

Trump was ultimately acquitted by the Senate, and he fired Vindman from the National Security Council in February 2020. Vindman then sued, alleging that the firing was retaliatory and an intimidation tactic.

Election analysts already viewed Florida as a difficult state for Democrats, with Kyle Kondik of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics saying Sabato’s Crystal Ball would move the Senate race from “likely Republican” to “safe Republican” after Nixon’s upset victory.

Moody, who was appointed to the Senate last year after Rubio became secretary of state, easily won the Republican primary and will now face Nixon in November.