In Florida, the socialist candidate Nixon springs a surprise; in Alaska, the moderate Peltola reassures voters

The American Democratic Socialists, who for weeks have been challenging the party establishment’s candidates in the primaries – with mixed results – have secured an unexpected victory. In the Senate primary in Florida, left-wing candidate Angie Nixon defeated former army officer Alexander Vindman. Few had expected this: Nixon, in fact, had raised significantly less funding – so little that she could not even afford to broadcast a single advert – and had not secured the backing of the party’s leading progressive figures. By the end of the campaign, the socialist candidate had raised just $975,000 compared to Vindman’s $16 million; Vindman was already known for having been a witness in the first impeachment trial of Donald Trump.

Nixon has been a state representative since 2020 and is the owner of Cafe Resistance, a bookshop in Jacksonville. Her campaign has placed a strong emphasis on reducing the cost of living and increasing wages: she has stated that the first measure she would like to pass into law is the reintroduction of subsidies linked to Obamacare, which are due to expire at the end of 2025. She shares the Democratic Socialists’ foreign policy positions, particularly regarding Israel: she has said she wants to cut US aid to the Jewish state, a stance that could prove controversial in a state that ranks third in terms of the number of Jewish residents.

In November, Nixon will take on the outgoing Republican Senator Ashley Moody in what is set to be a tough contest. Florida has, over time, shifted significantly to the right, and Nixon’s progressive views risk alienating moderate voters in a state that has voted for Donald Trump three times in a row. Furthermore, the Democrats will prefer to spend their funds in Republican states where they have a better chance of winning, such as Alaska, where the ‘jungle’ primaries – in which all candidates appear on the same ballot paper – concluded yesterday. Democrat Mary Peltola emerged in the lead; with 80 per cent of the votes counted, she was leading 48 to 43 over the Republican candidate, the incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan.

In the mid-term elections, the four candidates who received the most votes in the primaries will be vying for the seat, and a mystery has already arisen: in third place, with two per cent of the vote, is a Republican with the same name as Senator Sullivan. Trump calls him an "impostor" and the Republicans fear that voters may be confused, in a contest that promises to be a nail-biter right down to the last vote.

Peltola, the first Native Alaskan to be elected to Washington, has raised $16 million in donations – double that of her rival, whom she constantly attacks for having voted for Trump’s budget bill, which is accused of cutting healthcare funding. The candidate is a moderate whose campaign slogan is ‘Fish, Family, Freedom’: the rights of the state’s subsistence fishermen are central to her agenda. She is, in fact, seeking to ban trawling, a type of fishing carried out by large vessels using trawl nets. But that is not all: she has reiterated her opposition to the Biden administration’s environmental regulations; she is a supporter of the Second Amendment, which protects the right of individuals to bear arms; and she has described the Washington power structure as “corrupt”.

Elected as a Member of Parliament in 2022, a position she held for one term, she retained part of her predecessor’s staff, a Republican. She is a friend of Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice-presidential candidate in 2008, who described her as "a true Alaskan woman". In her previous campaigns, she had also secured the support of Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, who will now, however, be backing her colleague Sullivan. Unlike Angie Nixon, her chances of election are high: pollsters have described the race as "too close to call" precisely because of the candidate’s popularity; she will have to win in a state that elected Trump by a margin of 13 percentage points in 2024.