The victory of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) candidate Angie Nixon over centrist Alexander Vindman in the Florida Democratic primary for U.S. Senate shocked many observers. After all, Vindman, the whistleblower in first-term President Trump’s call to Ukraine president Zelenskyy demanding dirt on Joe Biden in exchange for much-needed military aid, outspent his scrappy challenger 16-1 and enjoyed national visibility due to his principled stance. Centrist Democrats and never-Trump Republicans, including most of the commentators for The Bulwark, were horrified. How could this have happened?
I was not surprised, though. DSA candidates tend to win Democratic primaries in two areas. The first is in so-called “Commie Corridors” like the stretch of northern Brooklyn and western Queens that backed local Assembly representative Zohran Mamdani and propelled him to his unlikely victory in New York City’s mayoral election in November 2025. That neighborhood went on to give DSA member Claire Valdez the nomination to succeed U.S. Representative Nydia Velazquez in June 2026 over a progressive Democrat who was not a DSA member.
The second area seems counterintuitive — places like Florida with far-right one-party rule and a significant degree of repression of political opponents. But I used to live in one of those places, and I can attest to the reasons why outspoken left-wing candidates often get themselves nominated in what seem to be hopeless races (though occasionally these candidates do win general elections). Much of this has to do with self-selection in closed primaries. In places where party registration is associated with carrots or sticks, people don’t want to be on the side of getting hit by sticks. So maybe they don’t change their registration to the party in power, but they’ll register with no party affiliation. That leaves only the most committed and daring people to vote in the primaries, the ones who on principle are willing to have their public sector jobs threatened or their property taxes raised or the health inspector go through their restaurant with a fine-toothed comb. These voters want their representatives to stand on principle at all costs as well. They want people who will fight instead of cowering or compromising.
As the regime ramps up its persecution of individuals, organizations, and states associated with the Democratic Party, I expect the support for DSA to increase as the “fight back” segment of the party gains reinforcements from those angry about the “K-shaped” economy where the one percent takes all the wealth while the middle class shrinks and the majority slides into poverty and insecurity.
From my research for Gringolandia and Eyes Open, I learned what happened in places in which free and fair elections do not exist, and the people who face economic hardship, repression, and the theft of resources by corrupt leaders have no peaceful way of changing their leadership or the direction of their country. In those cases, the most militant factions, including but not necessarily communists, became the leadership of the opposition. These committed, principled dissidents paid the price — arrest, torture, imprisonment, forced exile, and death. This was especially true in Portugal after 1958, when an opposition candidate for the presidency of the country (a ceremonial position but one that gave him the ability to dismiss the prime minister, dictator António Salazar) was widely believed to have won the election until Salazar took control of the vote counting. After that electoral close call, Salazar ended elections for president altogether, drove opposition candidate General Humberto Delgado into exile, and had Delgado assassinated in Spain in 1965.
(Side note: In 2015 the airport in Lisbon was renamed for General Humberto Delgado who, in addition to almost ending the dictatorship in 1958 and ultimately losing his life for the cause of democracy, co-founded Portugal’s flagship airline, TAP, in the late 1940s.)
Once it became clear that electoral solutions were impossible in Portugal, the Communist Party (PCP) emerged as the sole organized opposition to the dictatorship. In addition to organizing shipyard workers in the area around Lisbon, the PCP infiltrated the military, embroiled in colonial wars in Angola, Mozambique, and Portuguese Guinea (now Guinea-Bissau) and Cabo Verde. In fact, the 1974 Carnation Revolution was essentially a military coup led by lower-level officers, many of whom had ties to the PCP.
In Eyes Open, my protagonist Sónia’s boyfriend, Ze Miguel, joins the PCP because he experiences poverty, the death of his father due to unsafe working conditions, and discrimination. Sónia, too, is attracted to the communists after the government arrests Ze Miguel for distributing banned books and shuts down her family’s restaurant due to a mysterious informant’s denunciation. But after seeing what her future may be like as the partner of an activist, she realizes she is too much of a freethinker to become a communist. She is left in a kind of political and personal limbo.
I can’t give away much more about what happens to Sónia and Ze Miguel, but until September 3 of this year you can purchase the audiobook of Eyes Open at a 60 percent discount by using this link. The book is expertly narrated by award-winning reader Soneela Nankani, and audio is a perfect format for this verse novel. While it’s set in the past, exactly 60 years ago, it offers insights into how people survived under a repressive regime and how they tried to exert control over their lives in the most difficult of circumstances. And it explains why committed, often radical, activists ultimately become the voice of the opposition in the face of a narrowing political space and ever-increasing repression.
