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Florida Primary Results Send Shockwaves Through Democratic Party

Florida Primary Results Send Shockwaves Through Democratic Party

The divisions inside Florida’s Democratic Party were difficult to miss Tuesday, as two very different primary contests produced two very different verdicts on the party’s left wing.

In South Florida’s 25th Congressional District, Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz easily defeated Barry Larkin, a challenger backed by the Democratic Socialists of America. Moskowitz won 63.5 percent of the vote to Larkin’s 36.5 percent.

He wasted little time celebrating the result at the DSA’s expense.

“Florida is known for hurricanes,” Moskowitz told Politico’s Playbook. “And so the DSA is a disaster area in Florida — and there’s no federal reimbursement coming to help these people.”

But elsewhere in the state, the DSA had considerably more reason to celebrate.

State Rep. Angie Nixon defeated Alex Vindman in the Democratic Senate primary, winning 56.1 percent to Vindman’s 43.9 percent. The result was particularly notable because Vindman entered the contest with a major fundraising advantage and support from Democratic establishment figures.

Vindman became nationally known through the events surrounding President Donald Trump’s first impeachment in 2019, when the former National Security Council official raised concerns about Trump’s telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Nixon, meanwhile, joined the DSA this year, according to The New York Times, after establishing herself on the Florida Legislature’s progressive wing.


Her record includes a 2023 resolution calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s war against Hamas. Nixon introduced the measure less than a month after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The Florida House rejected it 104-2, demonstrating how isolated her position was among lawmakers at the time.

That puts Nixon in sharp contrast with Moskowitz.

Moskowitz is Jewish, strongly supports Israel and has repeatedly criticized antisemitism, including when it comes from within his own party. During the Biden administration, he publicly criticized White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre after she was accused of minimizing concerns about rising antisemitism.

Moskowitz has also occasionally defended Republicans when he believed the circumstances warranted it. He backed Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis during the controversy over a “60 Minutes” report concerning Florida’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution.

None of that makes Moskowitz a Republican. His voting record and political identity remain Democratic, and he has enthusiastically attacked Republicans on other occasions. But his decisive primary victory and Nixon’s simultaneous Senate victory demonstrate that Democratic voters in Florida are not moving uniformly in one ideological direction.

That creates a difficult situation heading into November.

Nixon now faces Republican Sen. Ashley Moody, who was appointed to the Senate seat previously held by Marco Rubio after Rubio became secretary of state. Florida has shifted substantially toward Republicans after years as one of the country’s premier presidential battlegrounds, making Nixon’s general-election task significantly different from winning a Democratic primary.

The ideological tension also surfaced in Florida’s gubernatorial contest.

David Jolly, a former Republican congressman who won Tuesday’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, attempted to draw a clear distinction between himself and the DSA while still praising Nixon personally.

“I reject the DSA,” Jolly said. “I reject socialism. I’m a capitalist. I think capitalism provides the greatest amount of economic mobility.”


Yet he immediately acknowledged Nixon’s appeal as a campaigner.

“I have been with Angie on the trail and I tell you this, she’s a fighter. She leaves it all on the field,” Jolly said.

Then he returned to the ideological dividing line.

“I reject socialism. I’m a capitalist. We’ll see how Florida voters sort that out.”

That may be the central question emerging from Tuesday’s results.

Moskowitz crushed a DSA-backed challenger while openly ridiculing the organization. Nixon, newly affiliated with the DSA, defeated a better-funded establishment opponent for a statewide nomination. And Jolly is trying to court Democratic voters while explicitly rejecting socialism.

The disagreement is no longer theoretical. Florida Democrats will carry those competing factions into the general election, where Republicans will have every incentive to make Nixon and the DSA part of their argument against Democratic candidates across the state.

Moskowitz has already offered his prediction about how that will end.

“Florida is where DSA goes to die,” he told Playbook.

Nixon’s primary victory means Florida voters will now get the opportunity to test that claim in November.

Written by Mark Stevens - August 20, 2026