By Karim Hammam
Republican Ashley Moody won election Tuesday to the U.S. Senate representing Florida, defeating Democrat Angie Nixon as Americans awaited results that would determine whether Republicans maintain control of Congress in the midterms.
Moody appointed to finish Rubio term
Moody took the seat after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis tapped her to succeed Marco Rubio when he became U.S. secretary of state in 2025. A former state attorney general, Moody will serve the final two years of the term Rubio won in 2022.
Nixon tested Democratic left flank
Nixon, a state lawmaker and democratic socialist, tested the strength of Democrats’ left flank in a state where the party has not won a U.S. Senate seat since 2012. She upset the establishment’s more moderate favorite in the primary, but her general election loss is unlikely to heal the struggling state party’s internal rift.
Florida’s rightward shift
Once the nation’s most evenly divided swing state, Florida has shifted steadily to the right over the last quarter century. At the time of the 2000 presidential election, Democrats held a voter registration advantage that eroded until 2021, when registered Republicans overtook Democrats. Today, there are 1.5 million more Republicans in Florida than Democrats.
Primary results and notable figures
Nixon received 56% of the August primary vote against retired Army Lt. Col. Alex Vindman, who received about 44%. Vindman, a former National Security Council staff member, was a key witness in Donald Trump’s first impeachment in 2019. His brother, Eugene Vindman, was elected to Congress from Virginia’s 7th District in 2024.
The Associated Press declared Moody the winner at 8:34 p.m. EST.
