Video: Global Warming Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit ...

Article: Global Warming Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit ...

Article: Global Warming Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit ...

Entry: Global Warming Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit ...

Video: Global Warming Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit ...

Far-left State Rep. Angie Nixon handed the progressive movement a surprise win against deep-pocketed Alex Vindman in Florida’s Democratic Senate primary Tuesday night.

With nearly all precincts reporting, Nixon had handily defeated Vindman, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and a top witness in President Trump’s 2019 impeachment, by 12 points, 56% to 44%.

Nixon’s victory over Vindman despite his name recognition and being vastly overspent in Florida’s Democratic Senate primary came as surprise precisely because of where it happened.

Progressives or those aligned with the democratic socialist movement have racked up primary victories elsewhere this cycle, but almost all of them came in blue or purple states.

Florida is neither. The once swing state has turned red over the last several years, which is exactly why Republicans are already treating Nixon’s win as a gift: a weak candidate that gives them the advantage of tying Democrats across the ballot to the party’s left flank heading into November.

Vindman had amassed a $16 million war chest for the campaign while Nixon raised a paltry $974,000 by comparison. 

Shortly after the race was called, Trump celebrated Vindman’s defeat.

“SleazeBag Vindman loses tonight to a Radical Left Lunatic. How cool is that???” the president wrote on Truth Social.

Nixon and Vindman were vying for a chance to unseat Florida GOP Sen. Ashley Moody, whom Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed to the seat vacated when Sen. Marco Rubio became Trump’s secretary of state.

Nixon joined the Democratic Socialists of America during the course of her primary bid – though the group stopped short of endorsing her – and drew backing from progressives including Democratic Reps. Maxwell Frost of Florida, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.

She and Vindman were competing for a chance to challenge Moody and serve the last two years of Rubio’s term, which ends in 2028. Whoever wins the November election will still need to run again in 2028 if they want to serve the full six-year term.

Moody, a former Florida attorney general, fended off three longshot challengers for the GOP nod. She easily won her Republican primary Tuesday.

Vindman received endorsements from key Democrats like Sens. Mark Kelly of Arizona, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, as well as Florida state Senate Democratic Leader Lori Berman. Nixon, who was first elected to the Florida state House in 2020, never got the chance to make her case against him directly – Vindman skipped debating her during the campaign and increasingly distanced himself from the party’s left flank as the race wore on.

Vindman also leaned into his history of standing up to Trump during his first impeachment, by fashioning himself as an anti-MAGA attack dog. Vindman, who was serving on Trump’s National Security Council at the time, testified before Congress in late 2019 that the president had pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former President Biden.

Trump has defended himself, calling his communication with Zelensky a “perfect” call, and the Senate ultimately acquitted him. Nixon, for her part, argued Democrats haven’t been forceful enough in their own messaging, hammering cost-of-living pressures on health care, housing, and food assistance.

Vindman was expected to clinch the Democratic nomination, with many polls predicting a Moody-Vindman match-up.

Despite Tuesday’s primary drama, Moody remains the clear favorite heading into November. The last time Florida elected a Democrat to the Senate was in 2012 when former Sen. Bill Nelson won his third term. The nonpartisan election handicapper Cook Political Report rates Moody’s seat as “solid Republican.”

A University of North Florida poll of likely voters taken in July had Moody leading Nixon 50% to 42% in a head-to-head matchup, while a separate survey from Associated Industries of Florida conducted in early June........

© RealClearPolitics