'Stop gaslighting me!': Florida Democrats' Senate nominee and party chair have heated call over socialism

Florida's new Democratic Senate nominee, Angie Nixon, and the state party's chair had a heated conversation Friday which included a yelling match about the impact of socialism and the challenges of campaigning in a red state like Florida, three people familiar with the conversation tell Axios. Why it matters: The conflict exposes the fault line in the party between the progressive base embodied by Nixon and the establishment represented by the state party's chair, Nikki Fried. Democrats already face an uphill battle in their effort to unseat Republican Sen. Ashley Moody. An escalating war of words between Nixon and Fried complicates efforts to unify Democrats. Zoom in: Nixon, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America who won the primary in a shocking upset over Alex Vindman earlier this week, expressed frustrations to Fried that she had not received sufficient help from the state party. Fried, in return, warned that Nixon's ties to the DSA could give an opening to the GOP to attack her, sources told us. According to two people who spoke with Nixon, both she and Fried yelled at each other over the course of the call. Another person who spoke to Fried said the chair did not yell but was yelled at. "Nikki wants her to back away from DSA, from socialism," said one person who spoke with Nixon. "She's listening to other people saying that they're afraid, they're scared — the Jewish members and the Hispanic caucus. But to Angie, Nikki doesn't want Angie to be who Angie is. Angie has already done the backing-away." On the call, Nixon told Fried, "You never gave a care about me from the beginning, and now you're telling me how to run my campaign?" according to the source. At one point, the source said, Nixon yelled, "stop gaslighting me!" The other side: A Florida Democratic Party official disputed that Fried yelled at Nixon. The official also said that the state party tried multiple times to contact Nixon's team about the coordinated campaign, but often haven't had their calls returned. But, the person added, Nixon's field team did participate in a call with the party's coordinated campaign this week. "The DSA label could create an opening for misinformation and allow Angie's opponents to define her in ways that don't reflect her actual record or positions, rather than letting voters hear directly from Angie about what she believes and what she's running on," the source said. Nixon's campaign declined to comment. Between the lines: A second person who talked to Nixon described the feud as "a clash of ideology — but it's also a clash of personalities." "Nikki needs to be careful," the person added. "She can't afford to be seen by black voters disrespecting a black woman." Another Florida Democratic official with knowledge of the dispute said Nixon and Fried have never been friendly and that Fried "was very disappointed that Angie won. She made that pretty well known." Before the election, the source said, Fried was predicting Nixon would lose and was "calling around telling people, 'Hey, can you make sure when he wins that Angie is nice and welcoming and does all the things to bring everybody together?'" "I know Nikki doesn't like it, but Angie is the engine right now. Angie is the national story, and Nikki just can't stand it." One of the Florida Democratic Party sources said that the organization did not favor Vindman over Nixon and was neutral in the primary. The big picture: Fried's concerns about socialism and its potential effect in the general election are widely shared in the Democratic Party, from Florida to Washington. But worries are most acute when considering two groups of voters, mainly clustered in South Florida: members of the Democrats' Hispanic caucus with roots in Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Colombia, where many fled leftist revolutions and violence, and Jewish Democrats, who are opposed to the DSA's fierce anti-Zionism and protesting tactics. The intrigue: What caught Nixon off guard, she told others, was that she was in the process of distinguishing herself from the DSA anyway. Nixon said she joined the organization for grassroots organizing help during the primary because the establishment was arrayed against her. And she agreed with their stances on housing, public education, corporate power and Medicare for All. But since winning, she moved fast to distance herself from several DSA positions, saying she doesn't back abolishing all prisons — just for-profit ones, she doesn't support "defunding" police or having so-called "open borders," and she disagreed with the national DSA's controversial commemoration of Fidel Castro. So far, Nixon has had an easier time finding common ground with David Jolly, the ex-Republican now running as the Democratic nominee for governor. Before her heated call with Fried, Nixon and Jolly had a friendly conversation, according to a person familiar with the talk. But Jolly's camp and financiers have expressed concerns about how Republicans will exploit the issue of socialism now that he shares the ballot with Nixon. Jolly's campaign has been fine-tuning his messaging to both praise Nixon as a fighter, emphasize what they agree with and respectfully raise where they disagree — socialism. In addition to facing Republican Byron Donalds who seeks to be the first Black governor in Florida history with $100 million already raised, Jolly is contesting with an independent run by Desmond Meade, the Black man who successfully restored voting rights to felons

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