By Will Brown
A Black woman from the heart of Moncrief earned the support of more than 3 million Floridians this election season.
Angie Nixon did not become the first Jacksonville resident to serve in the U.S. Senate since 1936.
At least not yet.
The 42-year-old organizer, small business owner, politician and mother says she will challenge Senator-elect Ashley Moody in 2028.
“I’m disappointed in the outcome, but I’m ready to get back to work – everyone is – because we’re going to make sure that Ashley Moody is held accountable for making sure that people have access to quality healthcare, a roof over their head, food on the table, trying to lower these costs,” Nixon said on Tuesday night. “So, I’m OK. I’m not happy with the outcome, but I’m ready to get to work.”
That fact Nixon came so close can only be attributed to the scores of Black women who supported her campaign.
Some were on staff, others volunteered, tens of thousands more voted for the former state representative who has used her bullhorn to bulldoze through staid situations in Tallahassee.
A Black woman has never won statewide office in Florida. Nixon’s 50-48 loss to Moody means it still hasn’t happened.
There aren’t too many politicians who would walk onto a stage after losing a statewide race playing Bonecrusher’s “Never Scared”.
Nixon faced racist attacks from an advisor to President Donald Trump. Nazi rhetoric was used on Fox News to describe Nixon’s supporters. Yet, they traversed the state – from Marathon to Marianna; from Sarasota to South Florida – connecting with voters.
The forlorn, yet hopeful faces of so many Black women in the audience said more than their words could muster. Some were pastors, others were elected officials. One, Sandra Thompson, attended the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963.
Thompson spent Election Day providing information to voters outside the Legends Center in Sherwood.
“It’s a very important election,” Thompson said. “We are electing our new leaders, in governor, Senator, the House of Representatives. We need to get it right.”
If Thompson’s presence at Nixon’s campaign party was any indicator, people did not get it right.
Despite the chance to send a Jacksonville native to the U.S. Senate, hundreds of thousands of Duval County voters did not cast a ballot this year.
Preliminary data from the Duval County Supervisor of Elections shows only 55 percent of eligible voters participated this year.
Felicia Demps was not going to miss this election season. She brought five of her grandchildren with her inside the polling booth.
“They came home and their teacher said ‘We need to vote.’ I said, ‘Well, let’s go!”
Demps says she is a reliable Democrat who supported lowering property taxes, supporting the 1-mil tax extension for Duval County Public Schools and people who cared about community.
“Everyone needs to get together. Everyone wants the streets fixed until it’s time to vote,” Demps said. “The most important thing is: we want these things; but, we won’t get out and vote.”
This year’s turnout is better than 2022 when Gov. Ron DeSantis won re-election for fun. But, it’s lower than the 63 percent of Duval voters who turned out – many of whom hoped Andrew Gillum would become Florida’s first Black governor.
Black women were at the heart of the local effort to inform and motivate voters.
Cortina Floyd spent three hours waving signs along Moncrief Road ahead of the Northwest Classic football game between Raines and Ribault. Floyd, and her Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. sisters, were among the nearly 50 people who sported Black Greek-letter organizations who informed voters last week.
“As a Black educator, I feel it’s important for me to do my civic duty,” Floyd said.
Exit polling indicates Black women, in Jacksonville, in Florida and beyond did their civic duty.
Afterward, girls of all ages danced on stage after the Associated Press called Florida’s Senate race in Moody’s favor. As they danced, they were unencumbered by the burdens and expectations that are placed on the bodies, minds and souls of Black girls.
The organizer who lives on the Northside, in a household with multiple union members, says it was not her dream to run for the U.S. Senate. But, the woman who openly invoked Shirley Chisholm and Fannie Lou Hamer on the campaign trail, committed to doing what she could to helping the next generation of girls.
“It’s not necessarily dream personally. I just want to help people,” Nixon said on Tuesday night. “I wanted to make sure that we’re improving their lives. But, the young people that came up to me tonight, they’re excited. They’re ready to continue to do the work and ready to, actually, build a better vision for their future. I’m all hands on deck with them, helping them grow as leaders and helping register more voters so that we can actually win.”