{"id":419595,"date":"2026-10-05T21:48:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T21:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/419595\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T21:48:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T21:48:12","slug":"angie-nixon-rallies-students-at-usf-a-month-before-senate-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/419595\/","title":{"rendered":"Angie Nixon rallies students at USF a month before Senate race"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a>Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Angie Nixon spoke to students and community members in the Marshall Student Center\u2019s Oval Theatre on Oct. 4. ORACLE PHOTO\/AYRON ESPINO-NARDI<\/p>\n

On Sunday night, the Marshall Student Center\u2019s Oval Theatre was full for a student rally for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Angie Nixon.<\/p>\n

The event was co-organized by USF Tampa College Democrats<\/a> and Bulls for Angie,<\/a> a non-USF affiliated campus campaign team.<\/p>\n

The event featured a speech by Nixon, along with a question-and-answer segment and a line for attendees to take pictures with her at the end.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nixon is from Jacksonville and currently serves as the State Representative for District 13 in the Florida House of Representatives.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

She announced her campaign in January and won the Democratic nomination in an upset<\/a> win over Alex Vindman in August.<\/p>\n

She will now be facing Republican incumbent Ashley Moody in the upcoming general election on November 3, 2026. Moody was appointed to the seat by Governor Ron DeSantis in early 2025 to replace Marco Rubio after he became Secretary of State.<\/p>\n

Zander Moricz, the Youth Director of Nixon\u2019s campaign, said that USF is kicking off Nixon\u2019s student town hall series.<\/p>\n

During her 22-minute speech, Nixon talked about her campaign priorities, such as affordable housing, universal child and healthcare, halting the construction of data centers and support of the working class.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the opportunity to build a new vision where every family has stability,\u201d Nixon said during her speech. \u201c[Where] every young person has dignity, and every worker has dignity, and everyone has the opportunity to reach the true American dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nixon said that she was excited that students were getting involved in politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe young people are fired up and ready to vote,\u201d Nixon said after the event in an interview with The Oracle. \u201cI\u2019m just excited that we\u2019re going to win this thing in November, and it\u2019s going to be the young people to help us do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related: USF sees Florida gubernatorial candidate James Fishback rally, meet and greet<\/a><\/p>\n

Attendees began lining up in the MSC Ballroom at 6:30 p.m., before they were allowed into the Oval Theatre for the 8 p.m. event.<\/p>\n

After a performance by the Bay Area Drum Academy Drumline<\/a>, Nixon took the stage at 8:06 p.m. with Tampa rapper<\/a> Doechii\u2019s \u201cNissan Altima<\/a>\u201d playing in the background.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Emma Van Hook, a junior secondary science education major, said she wanted to attend the rally because she has enjoyed following Nixon\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs someone who is a woman, and also someone who\u2019s part of the LGBTQ community, and as someone who\u2019s going to be a future educator, all of these issues are very important to me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She also said she has a lot of friends in Florida who are concerned with issues surrounding women\u2019s rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and teacher salaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe past few years, ever since Donald Trump has been elected into office, have been very difficult for this nation,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I feel like we need someone in office who is going to bring new life and hope, and I really see that with Angie.\u201d<\/p>\n

During her speech, Nixon pushed back on the Trump administration\u2019s \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d message.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are literally in a time where people in Washington, D.C., are saying things like, \u2018Make America great again. Take us back to the good old days,’\u201d Nixon said. \u201cBut I\u2019m looking at this very diverse crowd and I realize that the good old days are not really good enough for people that look like us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her rally came less than a week after Vice President JD Vance said at a rally in Lakeland that if Nixon calls herself a socialist, \u201cthe right response is to say, \u2018Then get the hell out of here. You don\u2019t belong in America,’\u201d according to WLRN<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cJD Vance told me to get out of this country,\u201d Nixon said during her speech. \u201cThey don\u2019t want people here that either don\u2019t look like them or don\u2019t think like them, but I\u2019m here to remind y\u2019all that this is our country too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related: Florida Attorney General talks DEI, artificial intelligence regulations at USF<\/a><\/p>\n

Dimitri Bernadotte, who graduated from USF in June with a degree in marketing and real estate, said he came to the rally because he likes Nixon\u2019s policies and campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a big thing for me personally is just money in politics and how she\u2019s been against a lot of that,\u201d Bernadotte said. \u201c[I\u2019m] really excited to hopefully see a change in Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nixon has not accepted corporate PAC donations, according to Action News Jax.<\/a><\/p>\n

Stronger Safer Nation, a super PAC supporting Moody\u2019s campaign, has spent nearly $2.7 million on ads targeting Nixon according to the Tampa Bay Times.<\/a><\/p>\n

During her speech, Nixon said the attack ads against her are lies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would I want to defund the police and abolish prisons when I want Ashley Moody to be locked up in one?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Jenna Moseng, who graduated from USF this summer with a bachelor\u2019s degree in health sciences and a concentration in social and behavioral science, said she and Bernadotte are both involved in their local Democratic Socialists of America chapters in Pinellas County.<\/p>\n

Both Bernadotte and Moseng said they have been canvassing door to door and handing out fliers to support Nixon\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cAngie Nixon just feels like she\u2019s a voice for the people,\u201d Moseng said. \u201cShe seems like a glimmer of hope in what seems to be kind of a bleak outlook.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nixon said during her speech that she understands that while the state of politics may seem bleak, there is hope out there.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can build a world where everyone is healthy. Everyone is prosperous.\u201d she said. Everyone is safe, everyone has the opportunity to experience joy and rest. That can happen. Don\u2019t let these politicians tell you that it\u2019s hard to get stuff moved.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Angie Nixon spoke to students and community members in the Marshall Student Center\u2019s Oval…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-419595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419595","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=419595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}