Rep. Angie Nixon spoke with WDBO’s Scott Anez Wednesday morning about the upcoming midterm election, recent poll results and some hot-button issues for Floridians.
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Nixon, the Democratic nominee for the Florida U.S. Senate special election, won in an upset against Alex Vindman in the primaries. Nixon now stands against incumbent Ashley Moody, the former attorney general who was appointed to the position after Marco Rubio was named secretary of state in 2025.
Nixon, who joined the Democratic Socialists of America in June, has received some backlash following her connection to the organization. Nixon said in an NBC interview in August that she does not identify as a socialist, but joined because she agrees with some of the party platform.
“I joined them as well as the Working Family Party, as well as the NAACP [and] became a lifetime member, and what I join those organizations for is because we need all hands on deck as we fight back against Donald Trump and what he’s doing,” Nixon said on Orlando’s Morning News.
Recent polls pitting Moody and Nixon show Moody leading ahead, however, polls vary by how much.
A recent poll published Tuesday by Stetson University shows Moody leading 52% to Nixon’s 41%, while a poll from Oct. 7 out of St. Petersburg with a similar sample size puts Moody at only a 2% lead. The average poll puts Moody at a 7% lead, according to polling data from FiftyPlusOne.
Nixon said she feels good about her campaign, calling the Stetson poll “an outlier.”
“Everyone is just tired, and they’re frustrated with 30 years of a failed Republican rule here in the state,” Nixon said. “And Ashley Moody has contributed to that.”
Nixon has openly criticized Moody for her involvement in the diversion of a $10 million state Medicaid settlement into the Hope Florida Foundation, an organization founded by Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis.
READ: Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell pursuing criminal investigation of Hope Florida
A state grand jury found that the DeSantis administration misappropriated the funds in August, taking money donated from the state’s largest Medicaid contractor and giving it to two nonprofits that funded political action committees that opposed Amendment 3 in 2024 to legalize marijuana in Florida.
The grand jury also said then-Attorney General Moody’s office knew of the plans to divert the money.
Moody, along with Sen. Rick Scott, also voted against a three-year extension of the Affordable Care Act health care tax credits last December.
READ: ‘Don’t buy Chinese anything’: Sen. Rick Scott on Orlando’s Morning News with Scott Anez
Moody has not outlined her healthcare stances on her official campaign website, but introduced the STOP Fraud in Medicaid Act back in March to investigate and prosecute fraudulent providers and recipients. It is currently pending in Congress.
One of Nixon’s campaign priorities includes championing the Medicare for All Act with no premiums, no deductibles and no copays, according to her website.
Nixon did not say how much the program would cost, but did cite a Yale School of Public Health study from July 2026 that claims universal coverage would reduce annual health expenditures by $1.04 trillion, including the care uninsured and underinsured people would receive.
The study also estimates it could save more than 100,000 lives every year, however, the study has not been peer reviewed yet. Some studies suggest the universal healthcare plan would cost more in federal spending and cannot erase the health disparities driven by wealth.
“At the end of the day, people are hurting,” Nixon said. “There are people going bankrupt simply because they’re trying to stay alive because medical debt is the leading cause of bankruptcy.”
The comprehensive coverage under Nixon’s proposed Medicare for All would include dental, vision, hearing, mental health and substance abuse treatment, reproductive and maternity care and prescription drugs, according to Nixon’s website.
Nixon said this reproductive care would include abortion care and access. Although it is not outlined on her website, Nixon said at a recent town hall at Florida International University that she supports covering gender affirming care under a universal healthcare plan. When asked if this would include surgeries for minors, Nixon said:
“I’m not going to get into these culture wars with people. At the end of the day, there are people who are dying, and I want to put people first.”
In comparing Moody’s platform on immigration enforcement to Nixon’s, Nixon said she does not believe the U.S. needs Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She also said border patrol officials should “take care of the border” and that she does not support an open border policy.
“I also am very much against…kidnapping kids from elementary school and dangling them as bait in front of their parents so that their parents can be trafficked and placed in cages, like down in Alligator Alcatraz,” Nixon said.
The Florida Everglades immigration center was officially closed in June. Detainees at the facility have discussed difficulty accessing lawyers and described poor physical conditions, according to the Associated Press.
Nixon has also called to cease construction of data centers in Florida, calling for more research into the effects data centers will have on the surrounding areas. Some studies suggest data centers have contributed to the rising costs of energy and utility bills.
“It also could potentially cause the area to become hotter,” Nixon said. “It could potentially contaminate water. We don’t know yet, and so we need to make sure that we’re doing research on the ones that have already been built and see how it is negatively impacting people. If we want to build a data center, go ahead and put it in Mar-a-Lago right now.”
Nixon is currently on a campaign tour across Florida, making appearances with Sen. Bernie Sanders, Central Florida-based Rep. Maxwell Frost and other progressives at colleges and universities. Nixon will be at the University of Central Florida on Oct. 14 and Oct. 20.
Although Nixon is taking steps to turnout young voters, she said her plan to convince older, undecided or Republican voters is by having conversations.
“We have Republicans that are voting for us simply because they understand what’s at stake. They are tired of being lied to,” Nixon said. “They’re tired of their costs going up. No food on the table…And so we need to make sure that these billionaires and these corrupt corporations pay what they owe. We close these corporate tax loopholes, and we put hardworking everyday people first.”
For more, listen to the Anez Sez podcast.
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