Jewish Floridians torn over anti-Israel Democratic Senate nominee Angie Nixon

Jewish voters in South Florida are divided over Democratic Senate nominee Angie Nixon, who accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza and opposes US military aid, against Republican Ashley Moody. Some say they will hold their noses and vote for Nixon; others call her Israel stance disqualifying. Nixon trails by 4 to 6 percentage points in recent polls in a state with roughly 665,000 Jewish adults.

Jewish voters in South Florida are split over Democratic Senate nominee Angie Nixon, whose criticism of Israel has become a sticking point in a race she is trailing by 4 to 6 percentage points in the latest polls. Nixon, first elected to the Florida House in 2020, accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza and says she opposes US military aid or weapons sales to Israel "at this moment." In November 2023 she introduced a statewide bill calling for "de-escalation and cease-fire in the state of Israel and occupied Palestine," which the Florida House defeated 104-2. She won the Democratic nomination in August on a platform of universal healthcare and free childcare. At Flakowitz Bagel Inn in Boca Raton, Ron, a Jewish attorney who declined to give his last name, said he is "really torn": he will not vote for Republican Ashley Moody, the Trump-backed senator appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis to replace Marco Rubio, but is unsettled by Nixon's positions. "Israel is important for me, and I suspect that she's not in that direction," he said, adding that sitting out the race is "as much as giving a vote." At a recent Boca Raton congressional candidates' forum at Congregation B'nai Israel, Peter Davidson, a sales rep and independent, said he will vote Republican in the Senate race: "Right now, the Democrats are not friends of the Jewish people in general." Marsha SanFilippo said she will back Nixon because she is "not comfortable with Ashley Moody," though Nixon would not have been her first choice. Leaders of the Florida Democratic Party's Jewish Caucus, which had endorsed Nixon's primary opponent Alex Vindman, have begun to come around; Vindman has endorsed Nixon. Caucus president and former state legislator Rick Stark said he will "probably close my eyes and vote for her." Mitchell Mallett, president of the Sarasota-Manatee Democratic Party Jewish Caucus, wrote in The Times of Israel that Nixon "will be a friend to both the Jewish community and the State of Israel" and has largely stopped making Israel an issue since the primary.