Florida Senatorial candidate Angie Nixon and Sen. Chris Murphy arrive at the Live Oak Ballroom on Wednesday for the UCF stop on her ongoing Florida Senate campaign.
Joseph Wiedeman
As Florida’s Senate race continues to garner national attention down the stretch, Angie Nixon made an appearance at the Live Oak ballroom Wednesday alongside Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy as she attempts to overcome a roughly 6-point deficit in the polls by invigorating young voters.
Nixon’s youth director Zander Moricz worked with the College Democrats at UCF to organize the “Knights for Angie” town hall as her campaign makes a push at undecided voters in the waning weeks of election season. Recent polling results conducted from Oct. 5 through Oct. 10 by MDW, St. Pete Poll, YouGov and Stetson University put Nixon behind an average of 5.75 points to opponent Sen. Ashley Moody.
Town hall questions centered on mistrust between constituents and the Florida government, in combination with what Nixon thought of Puerto Rican independence along with ongoing immigration issues.
“This country was founded and built on indigenous people as well as immigrants,” Nixon said. “We shouldn’t be disrespecting or treating people inhumane anyway. That is my stance, that’s my position.”
Kenny Backes, senior political science and security studies major, grew up in Connecticut, Murphy’s home state. He attended to better understand how Murphy supported Nixon and believed Nixon’s push with young voters is more about the value of money over converting new voters.
“Angie Nixon will hold money accountable, while Ashley Moody will lose ten million dollars if someone tells her to,” Backes said.
Nixon discussed her opponent Moody and said there were over 10 million reasons to not vote for her in the November midterms, alluding to allegations from a grand jury testimony that was leaked by CBS News Miami earlier this year.
State Rep. Angie Nixon and Sen. Chris Murphy respond to questions from UCF students on Wednesday in the Live Oak Ballroom. The UCF campaign stop marks three weeks until the Nov. 3 midterm election.
Joseph Wiedeman
According to grand jury testimony, Moody assisted Gov. Ron DeSantis in diverting roughly $10 million in taxpayer funds to a non-profit run by the governor. Reporting from the Florida Trident notes that the grand jury report was later thrown out on Oct. 11 after the defense was denied an opportunity to respond in court.
“Ten million dollars that you [Moody] stole from sick kids,” Nixon said. “That you put into political slush funds to defeat two citizen-led ballot initiatives that would have given us recreational marijuana and got political interference out of abortion.”
A brief speech from Orlando mayoral candidate, Fla. House District 42 representative and UCF alumnus Anna Eskamani followed the Townhall, with her saying she was ultimately there to show support for Nixon at this critical juncture. Eskamani emphasized it is important to narrow in on undecided voters when polling margins are so close.
“With a timeline that’s so tight, it is really important to be as present as possible and to expand that base,” Eskamani said. “I think the path forward is to identify those people who don’t normally get out and vote.”
College Republicans at UCF members attended the event with bingo cards based on things they thought Nixon might say. College Republicans at UCF Vice President Caleb Bernet said it was not a protest but rather a form of trolling and banter.
“Not disruptive or bad, but it’s good to have a little banter,” Bernet, senior computer science major, said. “We try to do this from the Republicans’ side as well so that people can engage with their candidates. I absolutely agree with the College Democrats’ right to have her here.”
College Republicans’ at UCF Outreach Coordinator Kayleb Bridges offered his own version on why Nixon is attempting to mobilize young voters in the final weeks of campaigning.
“Young people tend to be attracted by more populist-aligned candidates,” Bridges, junior economics and political science major, said. “I think she’s doing what Fishback did by trying to mobilize more young people to show up.”
The Live Oak Ballroom fills up with around 200 students for Senate candidate Angie Nixon and Sen. Chris Murphy’s appearance on Wednesday.
Joseph Wiedeman
Gregory Williamson, sophomore international and global studies major, came to hear both Nixon and Murphy speak, but felt Nixon’s stance on Republicans was disconnected from reality.
“I will say that I think both sides have been hyper-partisan,” Williamson said.
Nixon’s youth director, Moricz, is on a multi-year gap from Harvard and said despite the polling deficit, the data has been very encouraging to the campaign, and they believe at this point she is likely to be the next senator for the state of Florida.
“The beautiful thing about electing someone like Angie Nixon to the Senate, it’s that you’re not just getting a lawmaker. You’re getting a lawmaker and an organizer in one,” Moricz said. “You’re getting someone who is going to lead a movement of Floridians the entire time that she is serving in the Senate.”
A makeshift press scrum following the town hall allowed Senator Murphy an opportunity to elaborate further on why he came all the way to Florida and what makes this particular race so important nationally.
“I’m down here because I believe in Angie,” Murphy said. “Angie is somebody who is talking about actually fixing people’s problems. When she comes to Washington, I think she’s going to move the whole national conversation.”
When asked why the focus was on talking with students at this critical juncture in her campaign, Nixon didn’t hesitate.
“Young people are the leaders of today, not tomorrow. We need to be speaking to their issues,” Nixon said. “I would say they are not being heard by leaders at the state level, but they have the opportunity to change that come November 3rd.”