Florida Democrats' Senate nominee and state party chair clash in heated call over DSA ties

In focus for Florida Democrats: a post-primary rupture between Senate nominee Angie Nixon and state party chair Nikki Fried that could complicate any path to unseating Republican Sen. Ashley Moody. The two had a heated phone call Friday that, according to three people familiar with the exchange, turned into a yelling match over Nixon's ties to the Democratic Socialists of America and her complaints about insufficient party support.

Nixon, a DSA member who pulled off a primary upset over Alex Vindman earlier this week, told Fried on the call that she felt unsupported from the start. "You never gave a care about me from the beginning, and now you're telling me how to run my campaign?" Nixon said, per one person with knowledge of the call. At one point Nixon yelled "stop gaslighting me!" at the party chair.

Fried's side of the ledger looks different. A Florida Democratic Party official said Fried did not yell and was the one receiving the outburst. The concern driving Fried: the DSA label could give Republicans an opening to define Nixon in the general, particularly with Hispanic voters in South Florida who fled leftist governments in Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Colombia, and with Jewish Democrats who oppose the DSA's anti-Zionism and protest tactics. The party official added that the coordinated campaign tried multiple times to reach Nixon's team and often did not get calls returned, though Nixon's field staff did join one coordinated campaign call this week. Nixon's campaign declined to comment.

The distancing already underway

What caught Nixon off guard, she told others, was the timing. She was already separating herself from several DSA positions before the call. Since the primary win she has said she does not back abolishing all prisons (only for-profit ones), does not support defunding police, does not support open borders, and disagreed with the national DSA's commemoration of Fidel Castro. She described joining the organization for its grassroots organizing capacity during the primary when the establishment was, by her account, working against her.

A second person who spoke with Nixon called the feud "a clash of ideology, but it's also a clash of personalities," and warned that Fried "can't afford to be seen by Black voters disrespecting a Black woman."

What to watch: whether the internal friction hardens before the general. Byron Donalds, the Republican vying for Florida governor, has $100 million raised and is seeking to become the state's first Black governor. David Jolly, the ex-Republican now running as the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, shares the ballot with Nixon and has been calibrating his messaging to praise her while flagging his disagreement on socialism. Desmond Meade, the man who successfully restored voting rights to Florida felons, is running an independent gubernatorial bid that further fractures the field.

A person who spoke with Nixon closed the loop plainly: "Angie is the engine right now. Angie is the national story, and Nikki just can't stand it."