Bernie Sanders Visits Florida to Campaign With Angie Nixon
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has made a point of investing in Republican-leaning states. He rallied in Tampa for Ms. Nixon, the underdog Democratic nominee for Florida Senate.
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Drawn by Nixon’s Surprise Surge, Sanders Makes Rare Florida Trip
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has made a point of investing in Republican-leaning states. He rallied in Tampa for Ms. Nixon, the underdog Democratic nominee for Florida Senate.
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· 7:42 min
Oct. 17, 2026
Senator Bernie Sanders looked out over the soggy crowd gathered under the persistent rain on Saturday afternoon and recognized just how unusual it was that they were all there — campaigning in Florida, just 17 days before the midterm elections.
“I was told that Florida is a red state,” he told the cheering mass of ponchos and umbrellas in Tampa. “Well, from here, that doesn’t look like that’s the case!”
With a fellow progressive, Angie Nixon, on the Senate ballot, Mr. Sanders made a rare return to Florida, a state that did not much warm to him when he ran for president in 2016 and 2020. The state was still a battleground then and has since become only more Republican.
But Mr. Sanders, an independent from Vermont, and other progressives have found voters even in red states sounding more receptive of their message about taking money out of politics and getting the economy to work for working people.
“Nobody thought that Angie could win the primary,” Mr. Sanders said at the rally on Saturday in Tampa’s historic Ybor City district. “People think she can’t win the general election. Let me tell you, they’re wrong.”
Mr. Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, drew rebukes from Cuban Americans and other Hispanics, including Democrats, during his presidential runs for praising aspects of Cuba’s Communist government. Mr. Sanders is notably not visiting South Florida, the heart of the state’s Cuban exile community, in his two-day swing through the state.
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Originally published by nytimes.com. Syndicated material does not necessarily reflect the views of Glamour Canada.
