Bernie Sanders sends millions to Florida to help Angie Nixon in race progressives say leadership left behind

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is taking his war chest to Florida to help boost socialist state Rep. Angie Nixon in her race challenging Sen. Ashley Moody (R-FL) for the Sunshine State seat in the U.S. upper chamber.Sanders is taking some of the $23 million his campaign has in the bank and investing in Nixon’s campaign, along with Minnesota Senate and attorney general candidates Peggy Flanagan and Keith Ellison, respectively, according to Politico. Sanders’s investment in Nixon’s Florida race comes at a time when she has raised concerns that the Democratic establishment has not fully invested in her candidacy.Nixon told MS Now last week that she asked the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for support in her race, but she was met with no financial commitment. “When I did speak with Sen. Schumer on the phone, it was basically a ‘We will see,'” Nixon told the outlet.“He’s going to look into it. That’s what was said, that he’s going to look into it,” Nixon continued.Nixon told the outlet that the Democratic Senate establishment “could do a lot more” for her race, but added that she has received support from senators such as Sanders, as well as Sens. Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Lisa Rochester (D-DE), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). Nixon said that Gillibrand, the chairwoman of the DSCC, is “pushing the Senators to help support me financially.”Sanders told Politico that Democrats have “got to defend” the progressive candidates his caucus helped elect in the 2026 Democratic primaries.“We got three Senate races in Michigan and Minnesota and Florida that I want to see us win, three great candidates, and they’re all taking on enormous amounts of money. So we need to strengthen the grassroots movement in those states,” Sanders said.TRUMP TAKES A RED-STATE SWING AS GOP SPLIT ON WHETHER THOSE STATES ARE IN PLAYSocialist Twitch streamer Hasan Piker celebrated Sanders’s commitment to invest in Florida and Minnesota on Wednesday, writing on X, “king” in response to the news.Sanders’s team told the outlet that he is planning on hiring additional full-time political organizers in the states, while also organizing more texting campaigns to get out the vote.