Florida this week became the latest reddish-purple state to nominate a Democratic Socialist as the party's candidate for major office. Angie Nixon defeated moderate Democrat Alex Vindman. Vindman raised and spent roughly what Nixon did, but she won by 12 percentage points.
Nixon is a clear underdog to incumbent Republican Ashley Moody in red Florida. Still, like victories in other states, Nixon’s primary upset has energized progressive Democrats.
That is not the case in Ohio, where Democratic Socialists are limited to a few urban areas. But that will not stop Republicans from trying to pin the label on candidates like Amy Acton.
The Democrat running for governor is doing her best to stay away from any kind of socialist label. She has taken some moderate stances in recent weeks. She said she does not support transgender males participating on female sports teams. She does not want to ban data centers, only regulate them. Most recently, she came out in favor of a ballot issue that would enshrine Ohio’s voter photo ID requirement in the state constitution.
Many Democrats oppose the amendment, which is Issue 3, because it is already state law. But polls show more than 80 percent of Americans support voter photo ID requirements.
To discuss the races for governor and U.S. Senate, we welcome WOSU-TV’s Columbus on the Record panel: reporters Jo Ingles of Ohio Public Radio and Jake Zuckerman of Signal Statewide, as well as progressive activist Morgan Harper and Republican strategist Mark Weaver.
Snollygoster of the week
This week we give it to AEP and its tech company partners in building and powering data centers. Ohioans have seen their electricity bills jump more than 20 percent in the past year.
Data centers get a lot of the blame for the rising electric bills. Tech companies, utilities and politicians are feeling the heat.
This week, AEP announced it was partnering with several tech companies, including Meta, Amazon and Google, to contribute more than $18 million to a fund that helps Ohioans pay their electric bills.
Eighteen million dollars seems like a lot of money. AEP is chipping in $1 million.
But it can afford it. Last month, AEP reported a $713 million profit last quarter. Last year, it had a profit of $3.5 billion. But the announcement got some nice headlines and perhaps softened some of the blowback of higher bills and data center anxiety. For that, AEP and tech companies get our Snollygoster of the Week award.