Bernie Sanders Brings Tour to Florida for Angie Nixon's Senate Bid Against Ashley Moody as Thune Readies Visit

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders will bring his Fighting Oligarchy Tour to Florida this weekend to campaign for Democrat Angie Nixon, the Jacksonville state representative challenging Republican U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody. Sanders will hold four events with Nixon across Central and North Florida on Oct. 17 and 18, and two other national progressives, Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy and California Rep. Ro Khanna, have Orlando stops on the calendar. On the Republican side, Senate Majority Leader John Thune is expected to campaign with Moody this week, according to Punchbowl News.

The visits put new national attention on a special election that will decide who serves the rest of Marco Rubio's Senate term. Moody leads in the polling average, but some surveys show a closer race than Republicans expected in a state President Donald Trump carried easily.

The Sanders swing and other Democratic visits

According to the Florida Phoenix, in a report republished by WLRN, Sanders' stops are concentrated in Central and North Florida, with no South Florida events planned. The Phoenix noted that Sanders drew backlash from some South Florida Democrats in 2020 for comments praising aspects of Fidel Castro's Cuba.

The announced schedule of Democratic surrogates:

Sanders endorsed Nixon in August, and his political committee has given $250,000 to her campaign. Murphy and Khanna are both weighing 2028 presidential bids. Murphy told Politico he would push to raise "serious money" for Nixon, acknowledging the race "feels like a longer shot" while arguing that "this year is looking exceptional." He added that "we'd make a big mistake if we slept on Florida." Punchbowl News also reported that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries hinted he might visit Florida before Election Day.

A fight over the Cuban Club venue

The Tampa event is set for the Cuban Club, the historic Ybor City social hall built by Cuban immigrants, known in Spanish as El Círculo Cubano de Tampa. Dan Weldon, a Republican running for Florida House District 64 in Hillsborough County, criticized the choice in a Facebook post, calling it "beyond disgusting" that the club would host "socialists" Sanders and Nixon. Weldon argued that the club was founded to benefit Cuban Americans and that Tampa has one of the country's largest Cuban refugee populations, and said the club should be ashamed. The Phoenix report did not include a response from the club.

Who Angie Nixon is

Nixon, a former union organizer, won the Democratic nomination on Aug. 18 by beating Alex Vindman by about 56% to 44%, despite Vindman raising about $16.2 million to her roughly $1 million. Vindman pledged to support her, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee backed her after the primary.

Her campaign centers on affordability: she supports Medicare for All, universal child care and a higher minimum wage, and she has criticized Moody's vote against extending enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies, noting Florida has the nation's largest ACA marketplace enrollment. In an August MS NOW interview reported by WLRN, Nixon said she does not support defunding the police or abolishing prisons, opposes "open borders" while backing a path to citizenship for Haitian and Venezuelan immigrants who lost Temporary Protected Status, and said she does not support sending money or weapons to Israel at this time.

Nixon joined the Democratic Socialists of America this year, reportedly in June, and has said she does not agree with every DSA position. Republicans have made the label central to their case against her: in the Mason-Dixon poll for NBC6 and Telemundo, 52% of voters said they would be less likely to support a Democratic Socialist candidate, 8% more likely and 35% said it would make no difference. In the Florida House, Nixon was reprimanded by an ethics committee after she protested congressional redistricting with a megaphone on the House floor in May.

Moody's record and campaign

Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Moody to the Senate after Rubio became secretary of state, and she was sworn in on Jan. 21, 2025. A fifth-generation Floridian from Plant City, Moody served as a Hillsborough County circuit judge and as Florida's attorney general from 2019 to 2025. Her Senate biography says she is "focused on supporting President Trump's agenda, securing the border, standing up for the rule of law." She serves on the Judiciary; Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committees, among others.

Moody won the Republican primary with about 80% of the vote and has Trump's endorsement. She bills herself as "Florida's America First Fighter" with a focus on public safety. Democrats, led by state party chair Nikki Fried, have accused her of running a low-profile campaign and avoiding a debate with Nixon. "Ashley Moody seems to think this seat belongs to her," Fried said at a Tallahassee news conference in late September.

Moody has acknowledged the race is competitive. Her campaign wrote in a fundraising email that "The polls have been all over the place" and "it's close," and she has used conservative radio interviews to urge Republicans not to take the seat for granted.

Polls and money

The RealClearPolling average cited by the Phoenix shows Moody ahead 49% to 42%. Individual surveys range from near ties to double-digit leads.

In the Mason-Dixon survey, independent candidate Neil Gillespie drew 2% and 8% were undecided. Nixon led among Black voters 81% to 10%, among voters 18 to 34 and among independents, 41% to 35%, while Moody led among white and Hispanic voters and in North, Central and Southwest Florida. Tampa Bay was tied at 44%.

Moody holds a large financial advantage. She had raised about $11.2 million this year by the August primary, while Nixon had raised a little under $1 million, according to WUSF. A super PAC supporting Moody, Stronger Safer Nation, has spent about $2.7 million on ads attacking Nixon, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Third-quarter federal campaign finance reports, due Oct. 15, will show whether the Sanders money and national Democratic help have narrowed that gap.

What's at stake

Because Moody was appointed, the Nov. 3 contest is a special election. The winner will serve the remaining two years of the term Rubio won in 2022 and will face voters again in 2028. Republicans hold both of Florida's Senate seats, and a Nixon win would be the first Democratic Senate victory in Florida since Bill Nelson's reelection in 2012.

What's next

Murphy's Orlando appearance on Wednesday opens a week of visits, followed by Sanders' four stops next weekend and Khanna's return to Orlando on Oct. 20. Thune's appearance with Moody had not been scheduled publicly as of Tuesday. Early voting begins as soon as Oct. 19 in some counties and statewide on Oct. 24, and the deadline to request a mail ballot is Oct. 22 at 5 p.m.