{"id":366209,"date":"2026-08-08T13:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T13:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/366209\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T13:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T13:20:08","slug":"the-florida-senate-race-is-all-about-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/366209\/","title":{"rendered":"The Florida Senate race is all about Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

The old expression often credited to Tip O\u2019Neill, that \u201call politics is local,\u201d<\/a> poorly describes this Florida election.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a nationwide fight for control of a narrowly divided Congress in which the central theme for voters is the unpopularity of President Trump. Nowhere is that more obvious than in Florida.<\/p>\n

A Congress narrowly controlled by his party has failed abjectly in its constitutional duty as the first branch of government \u2014 to govern for the nation\u2019s benefit, not the president\u2019s \u2014 and to demand that he uphold the laws.<\/p>\n

It is proper that Congress is of many minds on contentious issues such as taxes, Medicare or foreign policy. What voters deserve from every member \u2014 conservative, moderate, liberal or progressive \u2014 is unwavering integrity and faithfulness to the Constitution. Every candidate\u2019s loyalty should be to you, the constituent, and to our nation\u2019s governing document.<\/p>\n

In the U.S. Senate race, Republican Ashley Moody was appointed last year by Gov. Ron DeSantis to replace Marco Rubio, who became Trump\u2019s secretary of state. This is a special election, for the two years left in Rubio\u2019s six-year term.<\/p>\n

Moody, 51,<\/a> twice elected as an ineffective state attorney general, has two primary opponents, but neither is viable. Trump\u2019s endorsement of her cleared the field of potential challengers, so Moody is assured to be the GOP nominee.<\/p>\n

An uninspiring candidate<\/p>\n

To call Moody\u2019s campaign low-key is an understatement. Facing a serious fight in November, she conserves her money. Through June, her filings show $10.8 million raised and nearly $8.4 million on hand. Pollsters view this<\/a>\u00a0seat as safely Republican, and Moody is playing it safe.<\/p>\n

You won\u2019t find an issues platform<\/a> on her campaign homepage. It features her endorsements, most prominently by Trump<\/a>, and her statement: \u201cI am excited to have a president who puts the interests of Americans first and I am proud to stand in support of President Trump\u2019s agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n

Voters should act accordingly and see this race as a referendum on Trump, whose most recent approval rating was 34%<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Two choices for Democrats<\/p>\n

Democratic voters have two options on Aug. 18. Their decision should come down to who they believe is more likely to beat Moody in November.<\/p>\n

Angie Nixon, 42<\/a>, of Jacksonville, a declared Democratic Socialist, is a state representative, the state House\u2019s most outspoken liberal, and a fierce critic<\/a> of Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 policies. She was arrested<\/a> in May after a five-hour sit-in outside the governor\u2019s office to protest a lack of attention to affordability issues.<\/p>\n

Popular among progressives and little known statewide, Nixon\u2019s campaign finances are weak, with $118,576 in the bank June 30.<\/p>\n

Her opponent, Alex Vindman,<\/a> 51, of Davie, is a retired Army lieutenant colonel who was awarded the Purple Heart after his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2004.<\/p>\n

Vindman is widely known nationally, as his fundraising shows, for having blown the whistle on Trump\u2019s attempt to extort a political favor from Ukraine in exchange for delivering aid Congress had authorized.<\/p>\n

That got him fired from the National Security Council staff, where Vindman, born in Russia and brought to the U.S. as a toddler, was director of European affairs. Trump also fired his identical twin brother, Eugene, also a lieutenant colonel, a former legal aide at the NSC, and now a Democratic congressman seeking re-election in Virginia.<\/p>\n

Well-positioned for Moody<\/p>\n

With $7.3 million cash on hand, Vindman is better primed for a race against Moody and clearly the more moderate of the two. Nixon\u2019s platform is idealism writ large, with promises of Medicare for all being expanded to include eye and dental care \u2014 no premiums, copays or deductibles.<\/p>\n

One issue clearly dividing them is Nixon\u2019s uncompromising opposition to more aid to Israel. Vindman\u2019s position is more nuanced. Without saying how he would have voted on a failed House motion to end aid, Vindman said that nobody should get a \u201cfree pass,\u201d and that he\u2019s committed to the two-state solution that Israel\u2019s present government opposes.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur system is rigged and Ashley Moody was hand-picked by the political elites who rigged it,\u201d his website says. \u201cShe screwed Florida homeowners by caving to the big insurance companies, supported this administration that gutted disaster help for communities trying to rebuild, and had over a million dollars in her corporate stock traded last year while she had access to insider information only Congress gets.\u201d<\/p>\n

It also notes that he stood up to \u201ca corrupt and illegal abuse of power by a president intent on undermining an election.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to imagine a political outcome that would annoy Trump more than Vindman in the U.S. Senate \u2014 particularly if Democrats regain control.<\/p>\n

The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. To contact us, send an email to letters@sun-sentinel.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The old expression often credited to Tip O\u2019Neill, that \u201call politics is local,\u201d poorly describes this Florida election.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2853,28,30,29,114,482],"class_list":["post-366209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-editorials","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-latest-headlines","tag-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366209","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=366209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}