Video summary
The video highlights a surprising political shift in Florida during recent Democratic primaries, challenging the expectation that the state remains impenetrable for progressive candidates. The narrator notes that while initial forecasts predicted poor results for the left due to Florida's conservative leanings, the actual outcomes were shocking and unexpected. A key example of this anomaly is the Senate primary race between Angie Nixon and Alex Vinman, where the progressive candidate Nixon defeated the heavily funded corporate Democrat Vinman despite being outspent by a massive margin of over sixteen-to-one. This victory suggests that under certain conditions, even in a deeply red state like Florida, grassroots support for policies such as Medicare for All can overcome significant financial disadvantages.
Despite these victories, the transcript details several difficult losses for left-leaning candidates, illustrating the complex and often hostile political environment in the Sunshine State. In the 20th Congressional District, incumbent Elijah Manley finished third against Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a result the narrator finds baffling given the district's demographics and Schultz's controversial record. Similarly, Oliver Larkin lost his bid for the 25th Congressional District to Jared Moskowitz, a candidate described as having moderate-to-conservative voting records on issues like Israel and COVID response. The narrator expresses frustration that voters in these districts chose candidates who align more with traditional establishment views rather than progressive ideals, noting that Florida seems to have a unique electorate that prefers corporate Democrats over genuine progressives.
The video also touches upon the peculiar nature of Republican primaries in Florida, specifically focusing on a race between two candidates with extreme right-wing ideologies. The narrator describes a contest between Randy Fine, a neo-Nazi and Islamophobe, and Dan Bilzerian, who denies the Holocaust but does not support genocide. Voters ultimately chose Fine over Bilzerian, leading to the conclusion that when faced with two extremist options, the electorate may simply pick the one they find slightly more palatable, rather than rejecting both in favor of a Democrat. This dynamic allowed Republicans to avoid endorsing either candidate while still maintaining their hold on the seat, highlighting the awkward positions such races can force upon the party establishment.
Ultimately, the narrator concludes that while Florida remains a formidable challenge for progressive movements, Angie Nixon's unexpected win offers a blueprint and a source of hope for future campaigns. Her success demonstrates that talented teams and effective grassroots strategies can occasionally overcome the state's structural disadvantages and financial hurdles. The video ends on a note of cautious optimism, celebrating Nixon as a phenomenal candidate who could serve as a fantastic senator if she secures her seat in the general election. While acknowledging that not all progressive candidates won their primaries, the narrator emphasizes that these surprising results prove that organized people can still accomplish significant political victories even in the most difficult environments.
Read the full video transcript
Florida, we did it. [cheering]
>> We show the world what organized people
can accomplish. [cheering]
[applause]
>> And we show the world what people of
Florida are all about.
[cheering]
>> Medicare for all.
Universal child care, [cheering]
>> real affordable housing, [cheering]
>> fully funded public education,
[cheering]
>> and an end to senseless wars.
>> We had more elections take place tonight
across the country. In California, there
is a special election going on. There's
also some Democratic and Republican
primaries in Alaska, but I want to focus
on Florida for today's video because we
got some interesting results. Now, just
to kind of put everything out in the
open, my expectations going into tonight
was that the left would do uh very, very
poorly because Florida has consistently
been a very, very difficult egg to
crack. But to my surprise, we got
shocking results out of Florida. So,
we'll talk about that. First, let's
focus on the sixth congressional
district. This is actually a Republican
district. And something very weird was
happening. There was a primary taking
place between Hitler and Hitler. So,
Randy Fine, for all intents and
purposes, the incumbent is a neo-Nazi.
He is explicitly Islamophobic. He talks
about how he hates Muslims, wants to
deport citizens including Zoran Manni.
And today there was a lot of attention
on this race. You had Mike Johnson as
well as Hakee Jeff come out and condemn
Randy Fine's opponent for anti-semitic
comments that he made about Randy Fine.
And it led me to believe that that in
addition to the endorsement that Donald
Trump made recently, Randy Fine, that
maybe he was in trouble. Turns out he
was not in trouble, but he was running
against Dan Bilzerian. Dan Bilzerian is
somebody who doesn't necessarily
identify as a neo-Nazi, but if you had
to put him into a box, he'd fit into
that box. He is essentially Nick
Fuentes. He denies the Holocaust. He
thinks that Jewish people are
responsible for the gays and for
transing your kids, but he doesn't
support genocide. And basically his
argument is that like if you're offended
by what I'm saying well Randy Fine says
it about Muslims and he's not wrong but
it's like well does that make it right?
So the question that voters would were
tasked with was like what flavor of Nazi
do you want? Do you want the Jewhating
Nazi or the Muslim hating Nazi? And
ultimately they sided with uh the
latter. They went with Randy Fine. So,
this was an interesting race to me
because in the event Dan Bilzerian would
have won, then it would have put
Republicans in a really awkward place
because they would have somebody in a
deep red district who would probably win
a seat in Congress and they would have
to denounce him because their Apac
handlers would not allow them to support
this candidate, not offer him any
institutional support whatsoever. But if
they rejected him, they would
essentially hand the seat to a Democrat.
And that's if that would even sink his
campaign because it's a deep red
district. So this could have been a very
weird situation for Republicans. But I
think that the main takeaway is um
whenever you see two Nazis fighting
Democrats, let them fight. You don't
have to weigh in and side with one Nazi
over the other. You can just step back
and let them rip each other apart. But
moving on to what you're all really here
for, the Democratic Party primaries. And
there were three races in particular
that I was watching. So, let's get to
the results from the first one. Now,
this is Elijah Manley's district. He was
running in the 20th Congressional
District, and he was taking on Debbie
Wasserman Schultz. Unfortunately, he did
not get it done. He came in third place.
And this result is crazy to me because
Debbie Wasserman Schultz is a carpet
beggar. This is a majority minority
district and she chose to run in this
district. Pissed a lot of people off in
doing so, but she still won. And I feel
like
who's going to be able to beat this
individual? She is one of the most
corrupt conservative members of the
Democratic party and nobody can seem to
beat her in a primary. So, some of these
districts are crazy. I don't know. Maybe
she's just like going to be there
forever. Maybe we're stuck with her. I
have no idea. But voters in this
particular district went for Debbie
Wasserman Schultz, which is quite the
choice. So, you know, I'm really sad to
see that happen. Now, when it comes to
the 25th congressional district of
Florida, this is the one a lot of
leftists were paying attention to
because Oliver Larkin was running a
fantastic campaign and unfortunately he
lost to the Dantis Democrat Jared
Moscowitz. And this district was also
really difficult. Osenox shared their
experience about phone banking where
they say, "Had a woman hear me out for a
few minutes on Oliver Larkin today.
asked his stance on Israel then said she
stood even more with Moscowitz now and
ended the call with a [ __ ] you an
experience I have not had phone banking
for Malad Curos Chris Rab or Adam Hamawi
now yes that's one anecdote but if you
look at the replies to Austinox people
from the district are like yeah that
that that checks out this is this is the
district so it's really unfortunate
listen this was always going to be a
really really tough fight for Jared uh
for Oliver Larkin. I mean, he he did a
phenomenal job. He got national name
recognition. He was appearing on Fox
News, Newsmax. He was raising a lot of
money. He had a substantial grassroots
campaign. But this was a tough tough
district to win in. And you know, I had
a little bit of hope because he had an
internal poll come out last week that
showed he was just two points behind
Jared Mosquitz, but unfortunately he
didn't get it done. And it really is
just baffling because again this is a
Democratic primary. It's a largely swing
district. So odds are, you know, you had
some voters playing pundit and they
thought maybe he was just, you know,
he's a DSA candidate so he couldn't win
in a general. Maybe that's part of it.
But, you know, there's a very very clear
difference between Jared Moscowitz and
Oliver Lin. Jared Mosquitz is a genocide
denier and he's voted to send money to
Israel, the country doing a genocide. On
top of that, he led Ronda Santis's COVID
response in Florida, which was
disastrous. He voted to censure Rashida
Talib, Al Green. He voted for the Lake
and Riley Act. So, for all intents and
purposes, this is somebody who is a
moderate Republican if we want to be
charitable.
And I don't know why a Democratic voter
would support an individual that's this
conservative. But again, Florida's a
different beast, man. Florida has some
people that are Floridaian. I don't know
how else to describe them. There's no
other adjective that I can use because
Florida is its own [ __ ] thing, man.
Like, seeing these results, you know, it
makes me want to do the Bugs Bunny
cartoon that we all see, you know, the
the gif that people share where he's
sawing off Florida and pushing it into
the ocean. like it makes me want to do
that. But at the same time, Flidians
redeem themselves a little bit because
even though we did not see an Elijah
Manley or Oliver Larkin victory, we got
one that is genuinely [snorts]
surprising. So, in the US Senate
primary, there was a race between Angie
Nixon and Alex Vinman. Now,
Alex Vinman is the corporate Democrat.
Angie Nixon was the progressive
Democrat. She supports Medicare for all.
She calls it a genocide, opposes sending
money and weapons to Israel. And she was
getting outspent
massively. She spent something like
$975,000,
whereas Vinman spent more than $16
million.
So, in a statewide race, you would think
this is going to be tough for her. Guess
what? Out of nowhere, she pulled out a
victory. I don't know how to explain
this. She did something that looked very
difficult, if not impossible to do with
almost no money. She won a statewide
race in Florida when she was massively
outspent 16 to1, more than 16 to1. This
is crazy. So Angie Nixon, a phenomenal
candidate, would be another Bernie
Sanders type of progressive if she were
to win. And now when you step back and
you look at a lot of these races, we've
got Angie Nixon now in Florida, Peggy
Flanigan in Minnesota, we've got Abdul
Elsayed in Michigan, Charles Booker in
Kentucky, we've got Troy Jackson in
Maine. If all of them were to win, and I
don't expect all of them to win, I'm
crossing my fingers, of course, but if
all of them were to win, the amount of
progressives in the Senate we would have
would skyrocket. I mean, still it's
five. It's a small portion, but the
amount of solid progressives that we
have who support Medicare for all, who
actually are aligned with the DSA and
the progressive flank of the party, I
mean, that would be phenomenal. So, I am
really struck by the results tonight.
Congratulations to Angie Nixon. Her team
is very clearly talented and they're
tapped in in a way that nobody else is.
And this is a shocking upset that I
don't think a lot of people saw coming.
Listen, as I stated earlier, my
expectations were very low coming into
this election. I was really hopeful that
we would see an upset. I didn't expect
uh much out of Florida, but for Angie
Nixon to straight up win a statewide
race, that is crazy. So, congratulations
to an Angie Nixon and to everybody else,
Oliver Larkin, Elijah Manley. I mean,
you did the best that you could in the
political environment that you got. I
genuinely don't know what the secret
sauce is for Florida. I think we all
need to take notes from Angie Nixon,
learn from her, and get her advice
because going forward, whatever
blueprint she had, we've got to utilize
that because it worked. And maybe it's
different in these districts because
there, you know, there was
gerrymandering recently and on top of
that, these districts are very distinct.
So, it's going to it's going to be a
little bit different depending on where
you're running on. But like Florida is a
tough state to run on if you're a
progressive. It's a tough state if
you're a Democrat in general, but it
seems like they seem to prefer corporate
Democrats in many instances in Florida.
I don't know what the [ __ ] is going on
in Florida. Either way, uh I expect to
just feel nothing after the election,
but I'm somehow feeling rejuvenated
because Angie Nixon pulled off a win.
That is insane. So, here we are again,
shocked by the results of an election in
a Democratic Party primary. And you
know, even though we had some really
strong amazing candidates not win, Angie
Nixon's win should be celebrated by
everybody on the left because she truly
is an amazing candidate and she would be
a fantastic senator. So, I mean,
amazing news.
Hey, hey, hey.