‘Grassroots will beat big money every day’: can a DSA member flip a Republican Senate seat?

Angie Nixon won one of the biggest upsets in US midterm primaries - and if elected, the Democrat would be the first African American senator in Florida history

The Democratic establishment had the money, the machinery and the candidate with national name recognition. Angie Nixon had a bookshop called Cafe Resistance and a grassroots campaign for the Senate. On primary election night in Florida, Nixon won in arguably the biggest upset of the primary season. But at least one person was not shocked: Angie Nixon herself. We weren't surprised," the 42-year-old reflects after overcoming a vast fundraising disadvantage to defeat Alex Vindman, a combat veteran who testified against Donald Trump during his first impeachment. We actually knew we were going to win; we just didn't know that we were going to win by that much. We put in the work and so super excited about the outcome. It shows that good old-fashioned grassroots organising will beat big money each and every day."

Nixon won 56.1% of the vote to Vindman's 43.9%. The result stirred tensions within the Democratic party in a year defined by the struggle between moderates and economic populists. In Florida - a state that has trended increasingly Republican in recent years and is now Trump's home state - Democrats have now nominated a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) who speaks openly about class war.