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Transcript: Florida Democratic Senate candidate Angie Nixon on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Oct. 18, 2026

2026-10-18T12:14:00-0400 / CBS News

The following is the transcript of the interview with Florida Democratic Senate candidate Angie Nixon that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Oct. 18, 2026.

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MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to Florida State Representative Angie Nixon. She is the Democratic Party’s nominee for Senate, and she joins us from Gainesville. Good morning to you.

ANGIE NIXON: Good morning. Happy to be here with you.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, it’s good to talk you.

ANGIE NIXON: And to the nation.

MARGARET BRENNAN: It’s good to talk to you. You identify as a progressive, but I know this past June you joined the Democratic Socialists of America during your primary bid. Our CBS polling shows 42% of Americans have a somewhat or very negative view of socialism. I’m wondering what elements of the Democratic Socialist platform drew you to it. How do you define your vision here?

ANGIE NIXON: For sure. So first of all, thank you for having me on the show today, and I think it’s really important for me to lay the groundwork because a lot of people—this is my first introduction to them. I am someone who is a lifelong Floridian, having worked in the state of Florida as a community organizer and a union organizer, and our campaign is on fire. We actually had over 4,000 people show up yesterday at rallies, and some in deep red counties, and we are on fire. We were able to outfundraise our opponent by over $2 million in this past quarter, and I know in regards to my joining that organization, it’s not about letters, but it is actually about the fact that we are fighting to ensure that there’s access to quality health care for everyone, and access to fully funded public schools, in addition to ensuring people have a roof over their head, my opponent, Ashley Moody, actually voted to end health care for over 440,000 people here in the state of Florida, which also jacked up premiums for private people—private insurance, and so I just want to make sure that people don’t go bankrupt simply because they’re trying to live or go to the doctor.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay, so on the specifics with your platform, you call for Medicare for all, a national rent stabilization standard, raising the federal minimum wage, abolishing ICE, and a 5% annual wealth tax on billionaires. If you win, you would have two years here in Congress with a Republican president in office. What areas of agreement do you see, if any? How would you work across the aisle with Republicans?

ANGIE NIXON: You know, I would work across the aisle with whoever wants to put hardworking everyday people at the forefront. I mean, right now, what we’re witnessing in D.C. and with my opponent Ashley Moody is a culture of corruption. Ashley Moody is someone who has enriched herself in the tune of $2 million because she is trading stocks, and of which she actually has the opportunity. She’s sitting on committees, health- healthcare committees, where she has access to insider stock trading information. She also has been able to—she also has actually been able to, she’s just not listening to what Floridians want. She is rubber stamping everything that Donald Trump wants as well. You know, she’s deporting—she’s okay with his deportation policies, locking people up in cages, and it’s something that I would work to stop when I become the next United States senator.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You made reference to a number of things there in regard to your opponent. There was a grand jury finding that the DeSantis administration misappropriated taxpayer funds to a charity called Hope Florida, but there were no charges brought against the senator. She has denied any wrongdoing. But moving along to issues in this campaign, you have talked about some frustration that you’re not getting more support from the Democratic Party. You told MS Now in September they could do a lot more to help you. You pointed out Florida has a very large black population, and you said “Folks are a little gun shy because Vice President Harris lost as a black woman, and so people are very hesitant in terms of funding black women in the South.” You did just campaign with Bernie Sanders. Senator Chris Murphy was just down there as well. Do you think now you are getting support from the National Party?

ANGIE NIXON: You know we are excited with all of the folks that are coming down, helping to ensure that we get this W in November, and I’m excited that folks like Leader Schumer as well as Senator Gillibrand have decided to host fundraisers, and we’re getting support. We always want even more support. But again, I’m also excited because this is a people-powered campaign, and we’ve had over 300,000 contributions, and those average donations are around $31. So that lets people know that your regular, everyday working people are supportive of this campaign. Look, we are not the little engine that could. We have been on the ground organizing, doing the work, building diverse coalitions all across the state of Florida. Previously, with very little help, and I have led those efforts from doing things like expanding and increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour here in this state, and that is what we are going to take part in and you know incorporate here on this campaign those coalitions of people, and that’s how we’re going to be able to win come November.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But you think you are getting the help you need now?

ANGIE NIXON: We’re getting help, but we always can use more. As a matter of fact, people can go to angienixon.com to donate to our campaign.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I just want to move on to some other issues here on your platform, but you did when you were talking about your opponent—I want to come back to language here because you have said you want to keep funding the police. You said that’s wrong for your opponent to accuse you of trying to defund the police.

ANGIE NIXON: Yeah, absolutely.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You’ve said she should be locked up and punished in jail. Given in the past that Democrats have expressed discomfort with some Republicans using that kind of language, do you worry that that sounds like a desire to weaponize the justice system?

ANGIE NIXON: It’s not language to weaponize the—It’s not a desire to weaponize the justice system. It’s designed to actually hold corrupt politicians accountable for what they’re doing. Again, I want an investigation done. I would like the Department of Justice to investigate because nearly $10 million was stolen from sick kids, and people are pointing the finger saying they don’t know who did it, and so we need to bring that in. Look, this is Donald Trump 2.0 here in the state of Florida, and we really need to work to push back. I’m wondering how many kids are going to die because $10 million was taken from Medicaid that was supposed to make sure that those sick kids had the treatment that they needed here.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay, well, as we mentioned, Senator Moody has denied wrongdoing. But thank you for your time. It’s good to meet you, Angie Nixon. We will be watching your race in November. We’ll be right back with a lot more. Face the Nation. Stay with us.