Angie Nixon turns trespass case into campaign ad

Democratic Senate candidate Angie Nixon is trying to use a Leon County Court appearance to spark her long-shot Democratic U.S. Senate Primary campaign against Lt. Col. Alex Vindman.

Nixon was arrested earlier this year for a sit-in protest of congressional redistricting in the office of Gov. Ron DeSantis. That arrest came after drawing discipline from the House Rules and Ethics Committee for using a bullhorn during the vote on the House Floor.

As things stand at this moment, she will face two counts: trespassing and resisting officer without violence. That trial will happen Sept. 21, should settlement not occur before then, more than a month after votes are counted in the Senate race.

But she made it clear in a video on X, which concluded with branding for her campaign, that voters who seek change should support her.

“Let me make one thing crystal clear today. If they think the threat of a trial is going to make me back down, they picked the wrong woman,” she said in the video, which used remarks from a press conference after the hearing.

Nixon called her trial a “weaponization of justice … to punish political pushback,” evidencing a “coordinated, desperate attempt” by DeSantis to “intimidate and silence” political opponents.

“I knew when we dared to disrupt the status quo, there would be a heavy price to say,” Nixon said. “And I am willing to pay it.”

Nixon wanted to meet with DeSantis to urge him to call a Special Session to repeal the congressional map his office pushed through, but DeSantis did not oblige. She was removed from his office and only then did he comment via social media on the scene.

“FAFO,” he posted at the time, presumably not referring to the efforts of the Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight.

While Nixon faces a battle with prosecutors at the end of the Summer, she also has formidable competition in Vindman, who raised $16.2 million through the end of June. Nixon had about $200,000 on hand in her report ending March 31, which is the last one she has filed.

She’s still attempting to fundraise all the same.

During a virtual rally Tuesday that was replete with talk of Dream Defenders and the DSA, neo-liberals, a “GOP war on Black America,” and “AIPAC money,” Nixon occasionally shed tears as she urged supporters to step up their efforts.

“I need y’all’s help, y’all. I am being out-fundraised, but we will not be outworked,” the Jacksonville Democrat said. “Right now, y’all, we need y’all to get organized. Donate to this people-power campaign so that we can go up on more doors. We can go up on more ads, and we can be… in the face of the people that need to see us.”

The rally raised roughly $5,000, with speakers like Roland Martin and Killer Mike delivering messages of mobilization.

Nixon’s closing message comes at a crossroads for her campaign and her political future, with Polymarket giving her less of a chance at the nomination than non-candidate Jared Moskowitz, who is busy with a re-election bid in a new district.

A speaker at Tuesday’s rally objected to Vindman being called the “presumptive nominee.” However, he has 95% odds on the same platform.

Nixon herself has said Democratic Chair Nikki Fried has appeared with Vindman, a seeming tipoff of establishment comfort levels with the candidate. Further discounting her relevance, Vindman will not debate Nixon.

Jacksonville political observers expect that even if Nixon loses, she will come back home and run in the 2027 election cycle.

She has previously expressed interest in District 10, a heavily Black district with a crowded field that includes former Councilman Reggie Gaffney Sr., a moderate Democrat who is far and away the leading fundraiser in that battle to replace term-limited Ju’Coby Pittman.