Bernie Sanders joins Angie Nixon for a weekend whirlwind tour of Florida

WSLR reporter Noah Bookstein was at their first rally in Ybor City.

By Noah Bookstein

Original Air Date: October 20, 2026

Host: With polls open since Monday for early voting and the midterm election in just 14 days, Bernie Sanders joined Angie Nixon for a four-event whirlwind tour of the state. Florida’s Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate started Saturday midday with a rally in Tampa. WSLR News reporter Noah Bookstein was there.

Noah Bookstein: Senator Bernie Sanders addressed a crowd in Tampa at the historic Cuban Club. The Ybor stop is part of a Florida tour where the progressive icon and independent senator from Vermont is campaigning with Jacksonville State Legislator and Senate candidate Angie Nixon.

Sen. Bernie Sanders and Angie Nixon

Nixon is running to replace Ashley Moody after she was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to her seat when Marco Rubio joined the second Trump Administration as Secretary of State.

WSLR News attended the rally as Angie Nixon and Bernie Sanders spoke to the crowd, gathered in the rain.

Angie Nixon: She certainly doesn’t want to talk about that $10 million she stole from sick kids.

[Audience boos]

Y’all, the whole Florida corruption is a real problem. I don’t care what political party you’re in; we should all be able to agree that government money and public settlement money should serve the public.

Her corruption—Ashley Moody just wants to talk about little old me. I don’t care what she calls me. I care about what her actions are doing to you. I’m not running just to replace one politician with another. I’m running to change who our government works for.

We are not going to build an economy where people can thrive by keeping wages stuck in the past. I believe in a living wage.

[Audience cheers]

I believe in the right to organize a union.

[Audience cheers]

And I believe that the people doing the work that keeps this state running should get a fair share of the wealth they create.

NB: The theme of the event was how to combat oligarchy, a term Sanders used to describe the increasing influence of the wealthy in politics, which he said Americans need to curb.

Bernie Sanders: These billionaires not only control our economic life; they not only increasingly own our media; they now want to take over our political system as well.

[Audience boos]

This election literally is about whether we continue to be a democracy or we move to oligarchy, where a handful of billionaires control everything. We need to get rid of this corrupt campaign finance system. We need to get working people involved in the political process. We need to have a government that works for you, not Elon Musk and the other oligarchs.

[Audience cheers]

Now, one of the things that the big money interests and their media do is they tell you change can’t take place. Our job is to stand up to these oligarchs…

[Audience cheers]

…and to say enough is enough.

NB: Sanders has become a major Democratic power broker since running for president in 2016. A decade on, his followers are rising within the Democratic Party and ousting establishment candidates in key races throughout the country. Sanders said Nixon understands what the country needs.

BS: What Angie knows—and I think she speaks for the people of America. She understands that we’ve got to end this corrupt campaign finance system.

[Audience cheers]

Angie understands—you just heard her say—that healthcare is a human right, not a privilege.

[Audience cheers]

NB: Sarasota activists attended the rally, including Zander Moricz, founder of the SEE Alliance, which advocates on school policy. Moricz is currently the Statewide Youth Organizer with the Nixon campaign.

Moricz and Sanders thanked followers together in a video posted to social media.

ZM: I wanted to say thank you so much to every single student who’s working so hard to turn out the vote for Angie Nixon, especially our USF Bulls, who showed out by 50 students in the rain working—you know what? I actually have someone who can do a much better thank-you than me.

BS: Well, you’re doing pretty well. But, let me just echo what Zander said. The future of America belongs to you guys, and you have a right to shape that future, and that begins right now in this election. If you send Angie Nixon to Washington, you’re gonna send somebody there who’s gonna take on the disastrous Trump agenda—who’s gonna fight for the working class and fight for the young people of this country.

NB: Nixon upset Democrat Alex Vindman in the primary, with Vindman outraising Nixon 16-1. Democrats credit her victory to her organizing ability. Now, she is taking aim at Ashley Moody.

During her victory speech in August, Moody painted herself as a defender of American freedom and Angie Nixon as a radical socialist.

Ashley Moody: My opponent will be a self-proclaimed socialist that proudly signed up and joined the Democratic Socialists of America. That will be my opponent. On one side, you will have a candidate that stood up for this state in the face of government crackdown, big government, called out Washington, held them to account, has pressed for accountability when they overreached their power and lied to the American people. We’re not making this stuff up. In the state of Florida, you have now a Democratic Party that has put up as their nominee a self-proclaimed socialist who runs a bookstore called the Resistance Cafe. I am not making this up. This is not some made-up fiction TV story.

NB: A leaked grand jury report concluded Ashley Moody, in her capacity as attorney general, was aware that $10 million dollars intended for children’s health insurance was diverted to a PAC funding one of the governor’s political priorities and that she directed her staffer to sign off on it.

In Tampa, Sanders and Nixon dismissed Moody’s portrait of their politics.

BS: President Trump, Senator Moody and a lot of guys out there, they say, “Bernie Sanders, Angie, they’re radicals, they’re communists, dadadadadadada.” Here’s the question: How many people here believe that the United States of America—richest country on Earth—should do what every other major country does and guarantee healthcare to all people?

AN: If believing that no family should go bankrupt because somebody got sick is radical, then call me radical. If believing that our teachers should be able to afford to live in the communities where they teach is radical, then call me radical. If believing that we should spend more money taking care of our children than fighting endless wars is radical, then what?

Audience: Call us radical!

NB: Reporting for WSLR News, Noah Bookstein.

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