Bernie Sanders just announced he's heading to Florida to campaign for a self-described socialist running for the US Senate.
JD Vance had something to say about that at a rally in Florida.
And a Florida socialist gave JD Vance a history lesson he didn’t ask for after he told her to get out of America.
What Vance Actually Said
JD Vance was in Lakeland on Thursday – MAGA country, as he called it, with 1.5 million more registered Republicans than Democrats – rallying support for Senator Ashley Moody when he got to the part about socialist Democrat candidate Angie Nixon.
He didn't mince words.
"When Angie Nixon calls herself a socialist, I think the right response is to say: 'Then get the hell out of here. You don't belong in America if those are your views.'"
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Nixon fired back in an interview, invoking her grandparents as sharecroppers and declaring there's nothing radical about wanting Medicare for All and universal childcare.
There's a lot wrong with that answer.
First, nobody questioned her ancestry.
Vance questioned her ideology – the same ideology that has starved, imprisoned, and killed millions of people across Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, countries whose refugees now fill South Florida by the hundreds of thousands.
Florida Already Answered This Question
Nixon can claim she's "just a lifelong Democrat" all she wants.
She joined the Democratic Socialists of America.
She ran her primary campaign under that banner.
She beat moderate Alex Vindman – the establishment's preferred candidate – by running further Left, not to the Center.
That happened six weeks ago.
And Floridians who actually lived under socialism haven't forgotten any of it.
A Pew Research survey found that 82 percent of Cuban respondents have a very or somewhat negative impression of socialism.
Among Puerto Ricans, 64 percent view it negatively.
Even Democrat strategists in the state have conceded the obvious – "socialism is a nonstarter in places like Florida, where there are big swaths of Hispanic voters."
The Florida Democrat Party chair herself has acknowledged the label is politically toxic in a state shaped by Cuban and Venezuelan exile politics.
Nixon isn't just running against Ashley Moody.
She's running against the lived memory of every family in Miami-Dade who escaped exactly what she's selling.
The Bernie Problem
Here's the detail that doesn't make the headlines Nixon prefers.
Bernie Sanders – the only sitting U.S. senator who calls himself a socialist, the man whose defense of Fidel Castro has made him radioactive in South Florida for a decade – is putting his own money behind Nixon and making the trip down himself before November 3.
That's not optics.
That's a coalition.
Nixon says she doesn't agree with everything the DSA believes.
She doesn't want to abolish prisons, she says – she just wants Ashley Moody in one.
But the people rallying to her campaign – Sanders, the Working Families Party, the DSA organizers who built her primary infrastructure – they know exactly what they're getting.
And so do Florida voters.
This Race Is Closer Than Republicans Want to Admit
Moody leads Nixon by 7 to 8 points in most polls, which in any other state would feel comfortable.
But a St. Pete Polls survey conducted in late September found the race statistically tied – Moody at 45.2 percent, Nixon at 44.8.
That's inside the margin of error.
In Florida.
With a self-described socialist.
Six weeks before Election Day.
The left-wing media will run that number as proof that Vance's comments were a mistake – that telling a socialist to leave backfires with voters.
They're wrong.
Vance wasn't talking to Nixon.
He was talking to the 1.5 million extra registered Republicans in Florida who need a reason to show up on November 3.
Nixon gave them one the moment she put her name on a DSA membership form.
Sources:
- Mitch Perry, "In Lakeland visit, J.D. Vance says Angie Nixon doesn't belong in America," Florida Phoenix, October 1, 2026.
- Michael Carter, "Angie Nixon Responds After JD Vance Says She Does Not Belong in US," WESH 2, October 5, 2026.
- Matt Brown, "Democratic socialist Angie Nixon won the Senate primary in Florida. Can she win in November?" Associated Press/PBS NewsHour, August 19, 2026.
- "ICYMI: Democrats' Socialist Surge Sends Hispanic Voters Running," Republican National Committee Press Release, September 4, 2026.
- "POLL: Ashley Moody Ahead by 7 Points Over Angie Nixon in Senate Race," Floridian Press, September 14, 2026.
- "Florida Primary: Angie Nixon, Ashley Moody to compete for U.S. Senate seat in November," Fox 13 News, August 19, 2026.
