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Democratic candidate for governor David Jolly addresses supporters during his primary election night party at the Miami Lakes Hotel in Miami Lakes, Florida, on Tuesday, August 18, 2026.<\/span>Al Diaz\/Miami Herald\/Tribune News Service\/Getty<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n For Republicans in<\/span> Florida, the midterm message to voters is clear: All Democrats are socialist. In televised interviews and social media posts since the state\u2019s primary elections last week, GOP members have continued to erase distinctions between the Democratic party to the Democratic Socialists of America.\u00a0<\/p>\n The socialist trope is not new. Florida Republicans have used it for years. But the 2026 midterms are bringing it to new heights as the GOP capitalizes on Angie Nixon\u2019s unexpected Democratic nomination for Senate. Nixon, a state representative and former union organizer, became a member of the Democratic Socialists of America earlier this year, though DSA did not endorse her and Nixon has rejected the term in recent interviews. \u201cI don\u2019t believe in labels,\u201d she told Axios<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe socialism attack has been around for ages and ages in Florida, and this year it\u2019s going to take on a different shape because we have a candidate at the top of the ticket who genuinely has affiliated themselves with the socialist movement in this country,\u201d said Michael Worley, a Florida political consultant who has worked on several recent Democratic campaigns. \u201cThat adds fuel to this attack in a way that we\u2019ve never seen before in Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n The Florida GOP has wasted little time proving Worley right, sending press releases following Nixon\u2019s win with subject lines like \u201cSocialism Is on the Florida Ballot This November.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cMake no mistake: the stakes are bigger than any one election. Socialists believe government is the solution and individual freedom is the obstacle to progress,\u201d said Evan Power, Florida GOP chairman, in the statement.<\/p>\n Even the most moderate of Democrats are being targeted by this narrative. At a rally in Tampa<\/a> I attended last week, Republican gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds called David Jolly, his Democratic opponent, a \u201cTrojan horse\u201d for the DSA. Jolly is a former Republican member of Congress who left the party during Trump\u2019s first term, became an independent, and registered as a Democrat last year before running for governor.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe learned from Trump, if you scream something a thousand times, it sadly saturates. But it\u2019s not working with the same currency [as] past cycles.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n \u201cYou\u2019re telling me that a former Republican congressman and Republican lobbyist is now a socialist?\u201d said Jacob Perry, a political consultant who has worked on Republican, Democratic, and nonpartisan campaigns. \u201cI don\u2019t know how that has any meaning any longer. It\u2019s the stupidest thing I\u2019ve ever heard.\u201d<\/p>\n In a phone interview, Power justified the label by labeling some of Jolly\u2019s ideas\u2014such as a state-run hurricane insurance fund<\/a> \u2013 as socialist policies. \u201cI categorically reject that he\u2019s a moderate,\u201d Power told me. Democrats, he said, \u201care radical leftists who are hiding under this moderate agenda.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Last week, Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat who represents parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties, defeated a DSA-endorsed candidate<\/a> who ran for his seat. And yet, in an interview with Fox Business<\/a>, his Republican opponent, Scott Singer, drew connections between Moskowitz, a centrist, and Nixon. \u201cNixon-Moskowitz,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s the federal ticket.\u201d<\/p>\n That messaging may work for some of the many Cuban and Venezuelan voters in Florida who fled communism in their home countries\u2014but they were likely already voting for the Republican ticket (In 2024, nearly 70 percent<\/a> of Cuban Americans in Florida supported Trump). For others, including the 25 percent of independent voters registered in Florida, it carries less weight. \u201cEveryone is a socialist. Everyone is anti-American, and my sense is that that is not going to be as effective this year,\u201d said Eduardo Gamarra, a political science professor and director of the Latino Public Opinion Forum at Florida International University.\u00a0<\/p>\n The current affordability crisis\u2014housing, groceries<\/a>, rising insurance costs, and gas<\/a> at $4 a gallon\u2014will also push Floridians to look beyond labels, Worley, the political consultant, told me. \u201cThe economic status quo for so many Americans and many Floridians is simply untenable, and they are desperate for something different.\u201d Nixon is running on a platform that calls for Medicare For All, universal child care, and affordable housing. \u201cThere is nothing \u2018radical\u2019 about fighting for a living wage, capping skyrocketing rents, or ensuring every Floridian gets the healthcare they need,\u201d Nixon said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n