JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Florida State Rep. Angie Nixon (D-Jacksonville) announced Thursday that she’s joining a crowded field of Democrats who are running for U.S. Senate in the special midterm election this fall.
The election will fill the final two years of former Sen. Marco Rubio’s term, after he left to become Secretary of State in President Donald Trump’s second term.
Nixon, a Jacksonville native, ended months of speculation Thursday when she threw her hat in the ring for that Senate seat.
Nixon, who has served District 13 since 2020, had announced in October that she would not be running for re-election.
One of her biggest focuses is affordability, which she says was a driving factor in her making the decision to run for U.S. Senate.
“Right now, people are being crushed by an affordability crisis,” Nixon said Thursday morning in an interview with News4JAX anchor Bruce Hamilton on The Morning Show. “Right now, it costs so much money just to be alive. Now it is time to send someone to D.C. who really cares about hard-working families across the state of Florida, who’s willing to show up not just during an election season and who is willing to fight back against the greedy billionaires and corrupt corporations.”
Often a vocal critic of Republican leadership in Florida, she most recently pushed back against Gov. Ron DeSantis’ proposals to cut property taxes. Nixon said that the governor’s policies are not benefiting working families in Florida.
Nixon said the biggest challenge to her in running in a Republican-heavy territory is going out and having conversations with people who often do not trust elected officials. She said she wants to earn that trust.
“I am a public servant. I am a community organizer who has been working to build up and uplift the community for over a decade across our state,” Nixon told Hamilton. “I am not just running as a Democrat. I am running as someone who is people over party. People over politics. People over profit.”
Nixon was among the lawmakers who visited Alligator Alcatraz in the Everglades and described it as crowded, unsanitary and bug-infested.
Nixon also runs Cafe Resistance, a bookstore and community hub on Soutel Drive in Northwest Jacksonville.
Nixon is currently facing a crowded field of Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate primary. They include:
Joey Mendoza Atkins
Paul Ron Cruz
Charles Gould
Alan Grayson
Jennifer Jenkins
Tamika Lyles
Evelyn McBride
Hector Mujica
The Democratic candidates will try to unseat U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody, who was appointed by DeSantis to temporarily fill Rubio’s seat until the special election.
The filing deadline for any candidate wanting to run is April 24.
The primary will take place on Aug. 18, and the general election will be on Nov. 3.
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