{"id":273012,"date":"2026-05-16T01:33:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T01:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/273012\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T01:33:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T01:33:16","slug":"democratic-state-rep-angie-nixon-arrested-after-5-hour-protest-at-florida-capitol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/273012\/","title":{"rendered":"Democratic state Rep. Angie Nixon arrested after 5-Hour protest at Florida Capitol"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rep. Angie Nixon, D-Jacksonville, was arrested Friday evening by Capitol Police after about five hours of staging a sit-in outside Gov. Ron DeSantis&#8217; office.<\/p>\n<p>She began her protest around noon, hoping to speak with a DeSantis staff member to discuss affordability in Florida. Nixon said two protesters who were with her at the time were arrested. At the time of her arrest, five supporters and a group of media members were told to leave the Capitol.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m here because we have continually failed to do the business of the people in this legislative body, in this governor&#8217;s office,&#8221; she told the News Service of Florida before her arrest. &#8220;I&#8217;m here because they, instead of addressing the rising costs and the fact that people can no longer to afford to be alive, to stay in Florida &#8230; they instead want to rid maps in support of what Donald Trump wants.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>At the time of her arrest it was unclear what charges she would face or where should would be taken.<\/p>\n<p>READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wlrn.org\/government-politics\/2026-05-15\/florida-court-to-consider-whether-new-us-house-map-violates-state-ban-on-partisan-gerrymandering\" class=\"Link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Florida court to consider whether new US House map violates state ban on partisan gerrymandering<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Nixon is running for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday Nixon was reprimanded by the House Rules and Ethics Committee for her loud protest on the House floor last month that disrupted the vote on new congressional district maps.<\/p>\n<p>The incident wasn\u2019t the first time Nixon caused a commotion on the House floor over redistricting. She led a protest in 2022 when the old districts were approved. The House briefly recessed but returned one hour later to approve the map.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It doesn&#8217;t have to be this way, and so that is why I&#8217;m here,&#8221; Nixon said.<\/p>\n<p>A request for comment from the governor&#8217;s office was not immediately returned Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/floridadems.org\/2026\/05\/florida-democrats-respond-arrests-of-protestors-in-the-state-capitol\/\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">statement <\/a>late Friday, Nikki Fried, the chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party, called the removal of Nixon and other peaceful protesters, along with members of the press, is a &#8220;clear violation of their First Amendment Rights.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cArrests and intimidation from Governor DeSantis will not change the truth,&#8221; she said. &#8220;The [redistricting] maps passed last week by Florida Republicans are illegal, discriminatory, and anti-democratic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis special session was about forcing through maps designed to dilute the voting power of Black and brown Floridians, defy Florida\u2019s Constitution, and rig elections for one party.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re deeply concerned by reports that journalists covering the protests were removed from the Capitol,&#8221; she added. &#8220;Freedom of the press is a fundamental part of democracy and any threat or limitation to that freedom weakens our country, state, and communities. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Only wannabe dictators arrest their political opponents in the shadows.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>WLRN News Staff contributed to this story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rep. Angie Nixon, D-Jacksonville, was arrested Friday evening by Capitol Police after about five hours of staging a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-273012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}