Florida’s GOP has a very short playbook: Call everyone a socialist

In a bright red power suit, Ashley Moody, the former Florida attorney general who nabbed the state’s GOP Senate nomination in Tuesday’s primary, strolled onto the stage of Florida Republicans’ “Victory Rally” on Thursday and did not waste time attacking her opponent, state Rep. Angie Nixon.

“If I told you last year that Florida would have a nominee to the United States Senate that was a self-declared socialist, would you believe me?” Moody asked the crowd of more than 150 people who gathered at a Tampa event venue to hear from candidates on the Republican ticket. “This is not a joke. This is not a fictional TV series. This is reality.”

“Let me make this very clear,” Moody continued. “Angie Nixon wants the United States of America to look like Cuba.”

Nixon, a Democratic state lawmaker from Jacksonville who helped lead the charge against Florida’s Republican-led redistricting earlier this year, defeated Alex Vindman, the presumed frontrunner, who raised millions of dollars against Nixon’s $975,000, in a stunning upset Tuesday. A union organizer, Nixon is running a campaign centered on affordability, Medicare for all, free childcare, paid family and sick leave, and a national rent freeze. She’s also a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, though the organization did not endorse her. 

The rally marked the GOP’s launching point for the 74 days until the general election in November. It also provided a glimpse of how Republicans will stoke fears of rising socialism against their opponents, especially those who embrace a version of the term, like Nixon.

In a state like Florida, where many Cubans and Venezuelans who fled communist regimes now live, the socialist label can be particularly toxic—and if Thursday’s rally is any indication, the GOP won’t hold back on attempting to leverage that kind of rhetoric this election season.

“The Democratic Socialists of America today is the Democratic Party, and that’s why we need to work triple time to ensure that the party of boys playing in girls’ sports, open borders, and unaffordability never, ever gets a foothold in the state of Florida,” Republican Blaise Ingoglia, the state’s chief financial officer—an elected position— who is running to keep his job this November, told the cheering crowd, which included women donning bedazzled red hats and a baby dressed in a US-flag-printed footie pajama. 

The evening ended with a speech from Byron Donalds, the House Representative who won the Republican nomination for Florida’s gubernatorial race this week. Donalds, who was endorsed by President Trump, began his remarks by mentioning that he had spoken to the president—who “was obviously in high spirits”—that morning.

After explaining the highlights of his platform, including the need to DOGE every government agency in Florida, Donalds pivoted to David Jolly, his Democratic rival—a centrist and former congressional Republican—calling him a “Trojan horse” for the Democratic Socialists of America. (Jolly is not affiliated with DSA or endorsed by them.) The audience erupted in cheers, raising signs with Donalds’ campaign slogan: “Defending the Florida Dream.”

“If you’re going to bend the knee to the Democratic socialists, you’re abandoning common sense,” Donalds continued. “You’re abandoning families. You’re abandoning sound economics. You’re abandoning parental rights. And in Florida, we are never going to abandon the hardworking people. We are going to fight for them every single day.”