 Representative Angie Nixon won reelection to the Florida House last year in district 13, covering parts of the West Side, Northwest Jacksonville. The two term legislators one of just two Democrats representing Northeast Florida in the House and it's one of the leading progressive voices in state with national media hits in MSNBC and other outlets. She's also really devoted constituent services so it's not just TV hits for her, but she joins us right now in studio. Welcome to First Coast Conduct Representative Nixon. Thank you for having me here, Angie. I really appreciate it. Yeah, I mean thank you for getting here on this rainy day. I mean I tried to tell you to bring the boat or the swim fins. We got a lot here Representative Nixon. So first thing first, the budget was signed earlier this month and there are a few line item vetoes in it and some are saying that the Santas punished minority legislators minority communities. Is that an accurate assessment? I definitely believe it's an accurate assessment and the free state of Florida is actually for sale based on campaign contributions and that's very unfortunate for Floridians across the state. What have your projects got vetoed this time around? So I only had a few projects and it was allocations. Can you believe it to a charter school? Me of all people looking out for a charter school and even that was vetoed. Look at the end of the day I have no problem with things like choice but I just want to make sure that there's parity across the board but based on Governor DeSantis we know that he was being a little petty as well as vindictive as it relates to his this veto process and it's just it's just very discouraging. The state of governor our governorship here in the state of Florida the fact that he vetoed more than three million dollars to mitigate flooding down in South Florida it only illustrates that we have a governor who was so consumed with political ambition and running for president that he doesn't care about Floridians the fact that that mitigation would have impacted South Florida similarly you know I just I keep being reminded of when South Florida was under water earlier in the year and he was out campaigning in Iowa and so now he's trying to stick it to majority democratic counties and things like that or folks that decided not to endorse him it's just rather upsetting the fact of the matter is that we took an oath to you know look out for Floridians here across our state I did not sign up to to play a role in his campaign and for him to gain points for a base of voters. Yeah I mean and a lot of people say that you know when he came in his first year or so he was pretty moderate on on certain issues but you know once Donald Trump lost and once COVID-19 happened it seems that he took a turn to the right. Yeah a sharp turn to the right at the end of the day many of the policies that he's been pushing and he's signed on to they're gonna hurt people I don't know about y'all but attacks on LGBTQ folks attacks on black history book fans it does nothing to lower the cost of property insurance it does nothing to lower the the rising cost of rents it does nothing to stop the mass exodus of teachers in our schools in fact it actually exacerbates it and that is very upsetting and you know the fact that I was punished specifically for basically educating people about what's been going on here this legislative session just goes to show you the the way that Florida has been has been governed we've had over 30 years of Republican leadership in our state and folks are hurting folks are truly hurting I get people calling my office every day stating they can no longer afford Florida or they have to move out of fear and that is something that I will continue to be vocal about and to push back against and you know I may not have been able to bring money home but what I am happy to say that I've been able to do is to help ensure that over 50 folks were able to get housing right being able to navigate the the different agencies to ensure that my constituents have a fighting chance to to flourish here in the state especially when you have an administration and a Republican led legislature that is trying to do the opposite yeah I mean you have a really diverse district too I mean it extends from Riverside and Avondale you know to a lot of the north side west side so you get a lot of different communities in your oh yes a lot of different communities and a lot of different issues but at the end of the day I'm not a representative just for progressive folks I'm not a representative just for black folks I represent everyone no matter who they love no matter what god they worship if they worship a god no matter how much they they make you know I just want to look out for all Floridians because all Floridians no matter their zip code they should have the opportunity to live healthy prosperous and safe and again unfortunately we have a governor and a Republican led legislature that cares more about corporations than they do Floridians yeah I want to talk about a bill that actually got signed recently protecting auto dealers except for Tesla basically it makes them where you can't bite them directly from the manufacturer you're one of two people to vote against it on a VS Kamani was the other one were you against it in committees and how did you get to your position initially I was I was not against it in committee they had the auto dealers that came out and made their case no one came to speak with me but then I started doing a little bit more and digging in and spoke with the manufacturers and spoke with some of the auto dealers and I realized you know at a time where inflation is going up rents are going up property insurance is going up food is going up like people need transportation to get to their jobs and to just have a good way of life right to be able to move around to be accessible to folks and so this bill actually is going to make it harder it could make it potentially make it harder for folks by charging them more if they have to go to a dealer and that's not fair if if he was going to uh you know punish manufacturers he should have done the same thing to Tesla and so you know you think he was trying to curry favor with Elon Musk I mean you know he announced his campaign on Twitter right and so you know I'll just leave it at that yeah understood five four nine two nine three seven if you want to get on the conversation with Angie Nixon here speaking of Governor DeSantis he's in California today he was in Nevada over the weekend he was in Sacramento yesterday where the legislature actually paid for him to fly undocumented immigrants from Texas to Sacramento you know so you know this campaign and the campaign stunt of flying people that's that's coming to the expense of Floridines it is definitely coming at the expense of Floridines I mean I don't know again like property issues is going up right people don't have access to mental health resources as much as they need a ton of infrastructure projects were just veto but yet he wants to use this as a political to fly migrants across the country and stick it to the libs as though he says that's just ridiculous the fact of the matter is that I know we are now going to have a 10 drop in GDP based off of his attacks his frequent attacks on undocumented folks on my I have to pull it up but I read an article that did some numbers and I'll pull it up but yeah so it's just it's absolutely absurd again it's going to hurt it's gonna hurt people many of his policies are gonna hurt people and so now we're gonna have crops that are untended now we're gonna have houses that aren't going to be built and just now it's gonna hurt Floridines all around the board yeah and yeah so why did the legislature let this happen I mean it's just the super majority Republicans it's the super majority Republicans and folks are afraid of the governor he's a bully he attacked Disney so of course you know legislators are going to be afraid that he's going to veto their projects look what he did to Joe Gruder someone who he used to walk from Sarasota exactly someone he used to walk lock step with and because he endorsed Trump he vetoed the majority of his projects he even vetoed a project as it relates to the recruitment of nursing nurses and things like that to his county and when we're facing a massive health care shortage of shortage of health care workers for him to veto that just illustrates that he doesn't care about Floridines all he cares about is being president we do not we cannot afford him becoming the president of the United States there's going to be more crazy antics like this and again it's just going to continually hurt people like I cannot emphasize that enough people are hurting here in Florida and we just need a leader who's going to stand up and and look out look out for everyone look out for the least of these yeah I mean and I heard a story this is something that you know you you may have insight on to and you may be able to speak to it more more directly in republicans that his political committee the never back down pack was passing out pledge card is that true you know I cannot I don't know but I heard that is what was happening on the house floor I know this was my third legislative session and the final the the final week and a half I've never seen so many people moving around like I did on the house floor and you know many of my colleagues in the front row so something had to have been going on and so you know I'll leave it at that understood five four nine two nine three seven if you all want to call in we did get one big project for Jacksonville in the budget the 75 million dollars for the University of Florida campus you know why you smile in ME AG well it's the one it's the one big accomplishment that really came through and I mean it's you know what do you what do you think of that project I mean you know 75 million is a lot of money you've talked about various projects of yours that were obviously smaller dollars and than those do you think it was the right thing that you think it was a political payback more Hussaini obviously you know and Paul Renter to you guys with kind of regional ties you know so so what do you think of that project so I have to tip toe around this oh you know I'm a gator yeah AG look at the end of the day I feel that more projects could have been funded as well as that you know UF does great things they put out they put out great students like myself um but you know I I'm a hometown girl as well I wish more money would have gone to UNF as well and Ju for additional projects I know that um there was a project that had gotten vetoed before I think for Ju but it made it through the budget this year but you know I also want to also want to make sure um like EWU is taken care of as well and so I will just say that um it is a shame that other projects were vetoed especially when we're sitting on over 12 billion dollars in reserves um we need a governor who's going to look out for all of Florida and not just those that he has a political or monetary connection to