Florida voters set up two potentially historic statewide races Tuesday, nominating U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds for governor and state Rep. Angie Nixon for U.S. Senate.
Donalds won the Republican nomination for governor and will face former Republican congressman David Jolly, who won the Democratic primary. If elected, Donalds would become Florida’s first Black governor.
Jolly, who left the Republican Party and later became a Democrat, has campaigned as a centrist. His campaign has emphasized housing affordability, public education and limiting government involvement in private personal decisions.
The Senate primary produced the evening’s larger upset.
Nixon defeated former national-security official Alexander Vindman despite being dramatically outspent during the campaign. Reuters reported that Vindman raised roughly 16 times as much money as Nixon.
She will face Republican U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody in November. Moody, Florida’s former attorney general, was appointed to the Senate seat previously held by Marco Rubio and then won the Republican nomination Tuesday.
If elected, Nixon would become Florida’s first Black U.S. senator.
The two contests put Black candidates in contention for offices Florida has never elected a Black person to hold: governor and U.S. senator. But the historical significance of the candidates’ identities does not erase the major differences in their political records, coalitions and governing priorities.
Donalds has built a national profile as a conservative Republican and close ally of President Donald Trump. Nixon, a Jacksonville Democrat, has developed her political identity around progressive positions on economic opportunity, public education, health care, civil rights and voting access.
The governor’s office has broad authority over state agencies, the state budget, education policy, appointments and the implementation of state law. Florida’s U.S. senators vote on federal legislation, judicial and executive nominations, national spending, civil-rights protections and health-care policy.
Those differences make the November election more than a symbolic milestone.
The Advocate Angle
Florida voters now face a political moment that is historic. But history alone is not a governing agenda.
Byron Donalds and Angie Nixon each could break a statewide racial barrier. That fact deserves recognition. It does not exempt either candidate from scrutiny, nor does it tell voters what either would do with power.
The question is not simply whether Florida will elect a Black governor or a Black senator.
The question is which vision of Florida voters will be asked to support.
Donalds and Nixon offer sharply different records and priorities on voting rights, public education, housing, health care, criminal justice, wages, business opportunity and the role of government. Those differences deserve more than campaign slogans or symbolic celebration.
The Orlando Advocate will examine what each candidate has said, how each has voted, whose interests each has advanced and what their proposed policies would mean for the communities they seek to represent.
That examination should include Donalds’ public record on race and civil rights. In 2024, Donalds drew criticism after saying that “during Jim Crow, the Black family was together” while discussing Black families and political affiliation. Critics said the comments minimized an era defined by legally enforced segregation, voter suppression, unequal opportunity and racial violence.
Donalds later said he was not arguing that Black Americans were better off under Jim Crow. He said he was referring to family-marriage rates and historical voting patterns. Voters are entitled to know both what he said and how he explained it afterward, particularly as he seeks the state’s highest office.
Nixon’s positions and record deserve the same serious examination. Her supporters point to her work on education, health care, economic fairness and civil rights. Her critics will question whether her progressive agenda can win statewide support and how she would turn her priorities into federal policy.
Representation matters because power matters.
And voters deserve to know how candidates intend to use it.
- Kevin Seraaj
- Kevin Seraaj
- Kevin Seraaj
- Kevin Seraaj
