JD Vance tells black Florida candidate running for Senate that she doesn’t ‘belong in America’. She turns his attack back on him
Telling a political opponent that her ideas are wrong is nothing unusual. Telling her those ideas mean she does not belong in America takes the attack somewhere much more personal. Vice President JD Vance went there while campaigning in Florida.
His target was Angie Nixon, a Black state lawmaker running for U.S. Senate. Vance has hardly held back when going after Democratic Senate candidates, but Nixon had a pointed response ready for his latest attack.
According to Atlanta Black Star, Vance traveled to Lakeland, Florida, to campaign for Republicans ahead of the midterms. While addressing the crowd, he focused on Nixon’s politics and suggested her views were enough to question whether she belonged in the country.
His argument quickly ran into a problem
“Ladies and gentlemen, when Angie Nixon calls herself a socialist, I think the right response is to say, then get the hell out of here,” Vance told the audience. “You don’t belong in America if those are your views.”
That is an especially notable line from someone who has warned Republicans about their response to the rise of socialism. Nixon has joined the Democratic Socialists of America, but she does not identify herself as a socialist.
After the clip spread online, X chatbot Grok added context about Nixon’s positions. It noted that she joined the DSA over healthcare and housing goals. She supports policies including Medicare for All, rent freezes, free childcare, and taxing billionaires, but rejects defunding police and abolishing all prisons. Nixon also owns a business.
The United States is also home to political groups beyond Democrats and Republicans. Independents and Libertarians hold seats in Congress, while organizations representing Green, socialist, communist, and other political movements have long operated in the country.
Nixon soon answered Vance herself. “The most ordinary man imaginable came to my home state to tell me to ‘get out of America’ while he & Absent Ashley enjoyed the comfort of buildings my ancestors helped build,” she wrote on X.
“Absent Ashley” referred to Sen. Ashley Moody, whom Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed to fill the seat left by Marco Rubio when he became secretary of state. Nixon is challenging Moody in the November election.
Nixon then took Vance’s argument about who belongs in America and turned it around. “Imagine standing on the shoulders of the people who built this country & then telling their descendants they don’t belong here,” she wrote.
“They can take their tech-bro cash and their weird, intrusive agenda somewhere else, because I’m not going any damn place.”
California Rep. Ro Khanna joined the criticism. “Telling a Black woman who is a descendant of enslaved people to leave America @JDVance I do not know what to say,” he wrote. “Even I didn’t believe you would go this low.”
Social media users were similarly furious. “Another day, another Klan rally,” one commenter wrote. Another called Vance a “shapeshifting loser” who would say whatever was necessary to win votes.
The exchange comes as Trump and Vance campaign for Republican candidates during the final weeks before the midterms. Republicans are trying to shore up support as voters grapple with rising prices, the administration’s war in Iran, and other unpopular policies.
Nixon, meanwhile, is a Jacksonville native, mother, business owner, and Florida state lawmaker. Her campaign describes her as “born and raised in Jacksonville” and someone who has spent her career fighting for working Floridians.
Vance made Nixon’s politics a test of whether she belonged in America. Her response made the weakness in that argument difficult to miss: she was already home.
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