One of the biggest unknowns in Florida’s U.S. Senate race is whether Democratic nominee Angie Nixon’s view that Israel has committed genocide in the war with Hamas will cost her critical support from Jewish voters.
Nixon was challenged over use of the term genocide Monday at a town hall in southwestern Palm Beach County — territory that is home to many Jewish voters who have been voting Democratic for decades, and where Republicans have gained support in recent years.
The reception for Nixon at the town hall was overwhelmingly supportive, though not universal.
When Lenny Marsh of Boca Raton got his turn at the mic, he told Nixon that she’s wrong to label what has happened as genocide.
Marsh said he is Jewish and disagrees with much of the way Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has prosecuted the war. And he said he “might agree” if Nixon said Netanyahu is a war criminal.
But terming what has taken place as a genocide is too extreme in his view — so much so, Marsh said, he wasn’t sure if he could vote for her. His other option, which he repeated later in an interview, is to not vote in the Senate race.
Under no circumstances, he said, would he vote for Ashley Moody, the appointed U.S. senator who is running to retain the seat.
“They are not committing genocide,” he said. “Genocide has a very specific definition. And it is not what Israel’s doing. I believe using that word engenders antisemitism and other horrible things. … I truly don’t support lots of what Israel is doing, but calling it genocide puts me in the awkward position of thinking I might not vote for senator.”
Some of the 100 attendees disagreed with Marsh’s assessment, with several grumbling as he pressed Nixon, until the candidate said everyone should be allowed to say their piece. “I want to just make sure that we’re treating each other with dignity and respect,” Nixon told the audience.
Nixon is among a growing number of Democratic candidates, and polls show an increasing number of Democratic voters, who view Israeli government actions in the war in Gaza as genocide. The war began with the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks Hamas launched against Israel, killing 1,200 people. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry has put the death toll of the ensuing war at 75,000 Palestinians.
Responding to Marsh, Nixon said she is “someone who has fought for the safety and well-being of all people. And as someone who is a Black woman who comes from a people who were stolen from their land, who have faced major atrocities, like I understand, and I want to be clear, I do not support antisemitism in any forms, and we need to call it out. And also, I don’t support any bigotry or hatred or hate crimes of any form, period.”
She reiterated that based on her understanding of the definition “that what’s happening over there is in fact a genocide. That is how I feel.”
Nixon told Marsh that if he doesn’t vote for her based on that one issue, that the result could be returning Moody, whom she termed a “rubber stamp” for Trump to the Senate and jeopardizing many other Democratic priorities.
“I am sorry that you feel as though you won’t be able to vote for me simply because of what I feel, but my concern here is the folks here in this room, here in this country,” Nixon said.
Mary Ellen Sorce, who lives west of Delray Beach, said Nixon responded “very well and under pressure,” adding that “it says something about her that she didn’t back down from her principles and what she’s said before. Unlike many politicians, I think she seems to be telling the truth about what she feels.”
“I don’t disagree with her actually in terms of the genocide part,” Sorce said.
Michael Cantwell of Delray Beach also disagreed with Marsh. “We can’t afford to be single-issue voters.”
Miriam Klepper, who lives west of Delray Beach and whose father survived a Nazi concentration camp in the Holocaust, said Nixon was wrong to use the label genocide. She said she hoped that if Nixon got more facts she’d change her view.
And, she said, there is a political cost. “I will vote for her. But I want her to understand that she could lose votes, Jewish votes,” Klepper said.
Jon Bauman, a prominent Jewish political activist who emceed the town hall, said afterward there are Jewish voters who share Marsh’s view.
Bauman, who came to fame as Bowzer in the band Sha Na Na, has been a prominent Jewish campaigner for Democrats in South Florida and around the country for decades. He is currently president of the political action committee Social Security Works.
“It probably will hurt her among some Jewish voters,” Bauman said. “I really think that most American Jews are where I am, which is that the actions of the government of Israel in recent times — in response to a horrible, savage set of attacks on October 7th … are unacceptable, and will never be acceptable and have to change.”
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Angie Nixon, right, shakes hands with Dina Heffernan of Pompano Beach, as Meryl Angelo, center, who lives west of Boca Raton, and Maria Montiglio, who also lives West of Boca Raton, look on. Heffernan, Angelo and Montiglio attended a town hall meeting featuring Nixon at the Dr. Andre Fladell Civic Center west of Delray Beach on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (Anthony Man South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Social Security
The ostensible subject of Monday’s town hall was Social Security, a critical concern for the audience of mostly older voters.
Nixon depicted Moody as harmful to Social Security, citing her vote for the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, which deprived the system of some of its funding.
Bauman said the moves by President Donald Trump’s administration to deport immigrants also hurts Social Security because noncitizens pay taxes to support the system but don’t draw benefits.
As a result of stepped-up removals under Trump, the system is projected to run out of money slightly earlier than previously estimated, in 2032, Bauman said.
Nixon said the legislation — which she calls the “Big B.S. Bill” — needs to be repealed. And she said afterward, she supports legislation that would apply Social Security tax to more of the earnings of upper-income taxpayers to shore up the system’s finances. She strenuously opposes benefit cuts.
Nixon said it is too hard for Social Security recipients to make ends meet, pointing to higher gasoline prices since the start of the war with Iran, which lead to higher costs for food and other necessities.
The candidate said her own mother is still working. She retired once, went back to work, retired a second time, and has come out of retirement again to bring in more money.
“I don’t want my mom to have to work until she dies,” Nixon said.
She said her mother’s situation is not unique. As Nixon travels around the state, she said she’s eating at a lot of fast food outlets.
“What I am witnessing is not teenagers working in these fast-food restaurants. What I am seeing are seniors working in these restaurants, not because they want to, but because they have to. And some of them are barely hanging on.”
The campaign
Moody’s campaign did not immediately respond to questions about Nixon’s town hall or about what the Republican was doing Monday on the campaign trail.
In a statement on Saturday, the Republican National Committee’s southeast regional communications director, Emma Hall, said: “Angie Nixon is fighting to raise taxes, abolish prisons, give mass amnesty to criminal illegal aliens, and turn Florida into a socialist hellscape. Floridians will never elect a far-left hack like Nixon.”
Before the town hall, Nixon circulated through the room, greeting everyone with “I’m Angie.” Afterward, she stayed to take selfies with anyone who wanted one.
“We’re hoping that she can garner enough support. Because we don’t want Ashley Moody again,” said Miki Eddleman, who lives west of Boca Raton. “I don’t think she is her own person. Ashley Moody votes 100% of the time with Trump.”
Bauman closed the event with a reworked version of the signature Sha Na Na song, “Goodnight Sweetheart.”
The original goes, “Goodnight sweetheart, well it’s time to go. I hate to leave you but I really must say. Goodnight sweetheart, goodnight.”
On Monday, it was “Goodnight Ashley Moody, well it’s time to go. … Don’t hate to leave you, but we really must say Goodnight Ashley Moody, goodnight — and take Donald Trump with you.”
Political writer Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.