Bernie Sanders is preparing to spend part of his roughly $23 million campaign war chest to help elect Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon to the U.S. Senate, as the progressive Vermont senator looks to turn grassroots energy into real votes in a race polls now call a toss-up. Nixon, a former union organizer and mother of five from Jacksonville, is challenging Republican Sen. Ashley Moody in what her campaign and Sanders both describe as an uphill but winnable fight.
According to Politico, Sanders is preparing to spend some of his estimated $23 million campaign war chest not just on Nixon but on progressive candidates in Michigan and Minnesota as well. Sanders has said plainly that he wants Democrats to win all three of those Senate races this fall, telling supporters, “we got three Senate races in Michigan, Minnesota and Florida that I want to see us win,” per the same outlet. His team is also planning to hire more full-time organizers in all three states rather than pour the money into television ads.
Sanders spokesperson Jeremy Slevin told Politico that Sanders is more focused on investing “heavily in building a grassroots movement” than on funding consultants or commercials. That approach has already taken shape in Florida: Sanders held a Zoom call with Nixon supporters earlier this month as they signed up to canvass for her, and he has promised to come to Florida himself to campaign, possibly bringing Senate colleagues along, according to the same report.
From Primary Underdog to Sanders's Pick
Nixon's path to this point has been anything but conventional. As Orlando Weekly reports, she defeated Alex Vindman, the presumed frontrunner in the Democratic Senate primary, despite being outspent by roughly 16 to 1. Nixon won the nomination with 56% of the vote, according to a Florida Politics report, and Sanders endorsed her shortly after that upset win against the significantly better-funded Vindman, per the same source.
Nixon isn't new to Sanders's political operation. She previously served as the African American deputy field director for his 2016 presidential campaign, overseeing five states, the Politico newsletter notes. That history appears to have paid dividends: her campaign brought in $1 million in the 48 hours after her primary victory, on top of the little less than $1 million she had raised through late July.
Nixon's platform leans heavily into Sanders-style progressive priorities, per Orlando Weekly, including support for Medicare for All, raising the federal minimum wage to $25 an hour, a federal moratorium on new AI data centers, free childcare, stronger workers' rights, and higher taxes on billionaires. She joined the Democratic Socialists of America this year and has said she would co-sponsor Sanders's data-center moratorium bill, according to Florida Politics.
A Money Gap Even Sanders Acknowledges
The financial mismatch between the two campaigns is stark. Moody had about $9.3 million in cash on hand between her campaign and leadership committee as of the most recent reports, the Politico newsletter states, while a separate Florida Politics account put her fundraising at $11.3 million through the end of July with $8.4 million on hand after the primary — compared with less than $1 million raised by Nixon over that same period, according to that outlet's reporting. Both figures reflect different reporting windows, but the gap is undeniable either way, and Nixon's campaign has not publicly shared updated fundraising numbers since, per Orlando Weekly.
Sanders has argued that money isn't the whole story. Sanders made the “they got the money; we have the people” remark during a Sept. 14 Zoom campaign call with Nixon. Orlando Weekly also reported that he predicted she would win regardless of her opponent's spending. He also said billionaires should pay their fair share of taxes to fund working people's needs — a familiar refrain from his campaign trail appearances.
Polls Show a Race Too Close to Call
Public polling has painted a genuinely competitive picture, even if it's inconsistent depending on the pollster. A St. Pete Polls survey of 913 likely voters conducted September 15-17, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points, found Moody and Nixon tied at 45% each, with Moody ahead by just four-tenths of a percentage point before rounding, according to Florida Politics. Another 7% of respondents were undecided and 3% said they'd vote for someone else, per that same survey.
Other polls tell a different story. A Quantus Insights survey taken September 8-10 had Moody ahead 50% to 43%, and a University of North Florida poll from July showed Moody leading 50% to 42%, the outlet's report notes. A Change Research poll conducted this month had the race tied at 47%, while a Stetson University poll separately reported Moody at 51% and Nixon at 40%.
Florida's electorate still tilts heavily Republican, with the GOP holding a voter registration advantage of more than 1.5 million voters statewide, the Florida Politics report states. Axios has described Florida as a state that has shifted sharply to the right, where Republicans have dominated recent statewide elections. Sanders himself has a rocky history in the state, having lost it to Hillary Clinton by about 30 points in the 2016 Democratic primary and to Joe Biden by 40 points in 2020, according to Politico's account.
Endorsements Piling Up Behind Nixon
Nixon has picked up institutional support well beyond Sanders. She's earned endorsements from more than three dozen local and state elected officials, from U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost, and from labor unions, Equality Florida, 50501 and Planned Parenthood, per Orlando Weekly's reporting. The Florida Democratic Party endorsed her after her primary win and has credited her political résumé — service in the party, union organizing and leadership in the Florida Legislature — as reasons for its backing.
Nixon's campaign manager, Eunic Epstein-Ortiz, thanked Sanders for supporting the campaign and said Sanders sees an opportunity in Florida and believes Nixon can win, according to Orlando Weekly. Moody, for her part, was appointed to the Senate by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2025, filling the vacancy left by Marco Rubio. Florida's other Senate seat, held by Rick Scott, isn't up for election until 2030.
Both campaigns are due to report their fundraising totals from July through September to the Federal Election Commission on October 15, per Politico, a filing that should offer the clearest look yet at whether Nixon's grassroots fundraising has begun closing the gap with Moody's war chest.
