In the end, state Rep. Angie Nixon couldn’t wait until a rally in her hometown of Jacksonville on Sunday to announce her next move.

Nixon says she is running for U.S. Senate, ending months of speculation about what her next move would be.

She enters a race where the Democratic nomination may be in reach, but a General Election win against incumbent U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody would seem to be a tall task. Nixon will be up against the state’s Republican registration advantage, Moody’s proven prowess in statewide races, and the nearly $4 million Moody has on hand as of her most recent campaign finance report.

After a statewide listening tour in recent months, Nixon said Republicans, independents and Democrats all told her the same thing.

“We can’t afford to go on like this. But these establishment politicians, including Ashley Moody, aren’t listening to us. Meanwhile, the cost of everything is exploding,” she said, referring to groceries, health care, child care, property insurance and housing costs.

Nixon accused Moody of “chasing headlines and playing into culture wars,” charging that the Plant City Republican elected twice to be Attorney General was “handed the seat” by Gov. Ron DeSantis. DeSantis appointed Moody to replace now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Nixon has never faced a serious General Election candidate, but has scored convincing intraparty wins in August.

She got more than 80% of the vote in the 2024 Democratic Primary in House District 13, a safe seat north and west of the St. Johns River in Duval County. She was first elected to the Florida House in 2020, defeating state Rep. Kim Daniels in the Democratic Primary that year.

Jennifer Jenkins, a former member of the Brevard County School Board, is the other major Democratic candidate with elected experience in the U.S. Senate race as of now.

As a Florida House member, Nixon has been best known for public controversies, as she’s often found herself in widely publicized feuds with prominent Republicans. Her bills and appropriations requests have not gotten much traction. She is in her sixth Legislative Session in Tallahassee.

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