Diaz-Balart: Democratic Party Now “Anti-American” Movement After Florida Senate Primary Win

By Alex Chen | Wednesday, 19 August 2026

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., stated on Wednesday that Republicans currently possess a clear distinction between their policies and what he described as the growing socialist element controlling the Democratic Party.

“You see in all the polling and in the voting, Republicans are still the patriotic Americans that, frankly, all Americans used to be not too long ago,” Diaz-Balart said on “National Report.”

He emphasized the GOP would focus on this contrast heading into the November midterm elections. “We have a great story to tell about how we’ve reduced inflation, how we’re getting this economy back on track, foreign policy—and how you see democracies on the march now once again, particularly in the Western Hemisphere,” he said.

Diaz-Balart noted the Democratic Party’s stark contrast: “All they have is they hate President Donald Trump. And they want to basically destroy the economy, have the government take everything over. That’s been tried time and time again. It’s not worked once.”

The Florida senator expressed confidence a majority of Americans align with Republican perspectives. “I think most people see through it,” he added. “I’m actually very optimistic about what I’ve seen after a very important primary night last night.”

Diaz-Balart highlighted that the win by self-styled socialist Democrat and state Rep. Angie Nixon—defeating long-presumed front-runner retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman for the party’s U.S. Senate nomination—was Florida’s most telling primary election on Tuesday. Nixon advocates for Medicare for All, a signature Democratic Socialists of America policy, alongside higher taxes on “billionaires.”

The Republican criticized Democrats for transforming the party into an anti-American movement: “It’s an anti-American movement,” he said. “And unfortunately, a lot of the Democrats now representing the party are no longer liberals. They are anti-American Marxists.”

Diaz-Balart further stated that this trend extends to foreign policy: “It shouldn’t surprise us that they’re also anti-Israel. They’re anti everything that the United States stands for or that helps the national security interests of the United States. A very wise man once told me, ‘You want to know how people really feel about the United States, see what their true feelings are toward Israel.'”