Angie Nixon, the minority leader in Florida’s state house, shocked many last week when she beat Alex Vindman, the incredibly well-funded former national security official who became a hero for many liberals after he testified during President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial. It immediately sparked conversations about far-left candidates beating more mainstream Democrats, given that Nixon is a Democratic socialist. In reality, the narrative is not that simple: Nixon is a Florida native who served in the state legislature while Vindman was seen as a carpetbagger.
But the data shows a more important trend — one that might shape voting and elections for 2026 and 2028: Black voters are turning out in higher numbers since the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act. In May, the Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais rule required the state to redraw its congressional maps saying it had “no compelling interest” to use race to create a congressional map that increased Black representation.
That effectively neutered Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the landmark 1965 law that prevented electoral discrimination based on race. Ron DeSantis wasted no time — within days he passed and signed legislation creating a new congressional map giving the state more Republican-leaning seats. Tennessee followed shortly thereafter, breaking up that state’s majority African-American district.
The response from Black voters has been furious. Votehub.com, which analyzes election results, showed that counties in the so-called Black Belt of the South, where many African-Americans descended from enslaved people live, had higher turnout after Callais than Black Belt districts that went before. They wanted to do it to disrupt minority voting power.” But if anything, that undersells the story.
In fact, many – though not all – majority-Black counties in the Deep South saw increased turnout compared to previous elections. Nixon’s victory proves that out. Florida’s Gadsden County boasts a 52.7 percent Black population, making it the blackest county in the state.
In 2022, the state had a contested Democratic gubernatorial primary to determine who would challenge DeSantis and Val Demings – who, like Nixon, was a Black woman – was the Democratic nominee to challenge then-Sen. As a result, Gadsden saw 34.2 percent turnout in 2022. But on Tuesday, 36.32 of Gadsden’s voters went to the polls.
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