Senator Ashley Moody campaigned in Hialeah on Thursday night, urging supporters to vote by Tuesday to counter progressive canvassers arriving from New York. The campaign stop highlighted fierce anti-socialism messaging targeting Democratic Senate nominee Angie Nixon in the waning days of the race.
Campaign Rally in Hialeah and the Anti-Socialism Message
Senator Ashley Moody took the microphone at a campaign event in South Florida on Thursday night and urged her supporters to vote by Tuesday so that socialism — communism — will never get a foothold in this nation.
The Republican senator also took to X on Thursday, writing that THE COMMUNISTS ARE COMING,
referring to progressive canvassers traveling from New York to get out the vote for State Representative Angie Nixon, the Democratic Senate nominee.
The messaging targets a region where fears of left-wing ideology resonate strongly within a large Cuban American population. Republicans have also made inroads with Hispanic voters who fled authoritarian governments in Venezuela and Nicaragua. Thursday’s gathering in Hialeah drew a mostly older crowd sitting in folding chairs who periodically burst into chants of U.S.A.!
though the event was less crowded and jubilant than a major 2022 rally held at the same venue.
Republicans Attack Nixon over Cuba Comments
Florida Republicans have focused their attacks this election cycle on Ms. Nixon, who joined the Democratic Socialists of America this year. Although she describes herself as a progressive rather than a socialist and has split from the organization on several issues, her campaign faced fresh backlash this week over an interview with CBS News regarding whether Cuba is a dictatorship.
That is what people have told me. I have never been to Cuba, and so I will have to take their word for it.
Pre-Party Hialeah Style with @MayorBryanCalvoExcited to rally everyone to get out and vote November 3rd! pic.twitter.com/ULg77l7o8t
While Ms. Nixon has stated both before and since that Cuba is a dictatorship, and has campaigned heavily on the high cost of living and deportations under the Trump administration, her response provided fodder for opponents in the final days of the campaign. Do you think she doesn’t want to admit or acknowledge that, in fact, she’s a pawn for communists and dictatorship?
Ms. Moody asked the crowd in Hialeah.
Polling Margins and Memory of Past Midterms in Miami-Dade County
Ms. Moody holds a moderate lead over Ms. Nixon according to New York Times/Siena polls released this week. Meanwhile, Representative Byron Donalds, the Republican gubernatorial nominee, leads Democratic nominee David Jolly by a slimmer margin. Four years prior, Marco Rubio and Ron DeSantis joined a large contingent of Republicans at the same Hialeah venue ahead of the 2022 midterms, celebrating a night where Mr. DeSantis won re-election by 19 percentage points, Mr. Rubio won by 16 percentage points, and Miami-Dade County flipped red.
President Trump subsequently won the county in 2024, marking the first time a Republican presidential candidate carried it since 1988. Even so, some Republicans privately express concern over whether the party can hold onto Miami-Dade County, the state’s largest. Máximo Álvarez, a Cuban American businessman and longtime Republican donor, warned attendees against complacency.
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