Moody narrowly defeats Nixon in Florida Senate special election

Republican U.S. Senator Ashley Moody kept her Washington seat after winning a special election on Tuesday night against Democrat Angie Nixon. The race was much tighter than political observers had predicted months earlier.

Current ballot counts show Moody won by around three percentage points, with 50.9 percent to Nixon’s 48 percent. Non-party affiliated candidate Neil Gillespie secured 1.1 percent.

“Tonight, the results were not what we worked for; they are not what we hoped for. And I know there are a lot of people in this room who are hurting right now. But I’m an organizer, not a politician.”

Moody is the incumbent, but this was her first time running for the seat. The Associated Press called the race for Moody at 8:35 p.m.

In her victory speech Tuesday in Tampa, Moody called Florida a “firewall” to socialism and said the state chose freedom over socialism. She told supporters at Hotel Haya that Florida would not be messed with.

Nixon conceded the race shortly before 9 p.m. at her Election Night headquarters in Jacksonville. The 42-year-old outgoing state representative said she would keep fighting for workers against corporate influence and for healthcare and Social Security for seniors.

Nixon’s identity as a Democratic Socialists of America and Working Families Party candidate put her in a difficult position in Florida, a state with a strong Republican voter base. She received last-minute endorsements from former President Barack Obama, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

National Democratic PACs were hesitant to divert finite resources from high-profile Senate races to Nixon’s insurgent campaign. A University of Florida professor said the result raises questions about whether the Democratic Party provides enough support for Black women running for long-shot offices.