Rep. Angie Nixon, D-Jacksonsville, stages a sit-in at Gov Ron DeSantis' office on Friday, May 15, 2026. | Angie Nixon, Facebook
Published on May 19, 2026 at 10:39 am
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A Jacksonville lawmaker is out of jail following her arrest Friday after she refused to leave Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office.
Democratic Rep. Angie Nixon had demanded a meeting with DeSantis on the state’s new congressional map.
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“I’ll wait on the governor,” she said, after receiving a warning to leave when the state Capitol closed Friday evening.
DeSantis called Nixon’s actions “performative nonsense.”
The map creates four new GOP-leaning U.S. House districts.
Nixon, who is running for U.S. Senate, accused Republican lawmakers of being focused on helping their party and President Donald Trump instead of helping Floridians with affordability issues.
READ MORE: State Rep. Angie Nixon reprimanded for disrupting Florida House
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“That’s why we’re here, because they rig those maps for him, and I am absolutely upset about it, and I won’t sit idly by without speaking up for hardworking folks that are struggling day-to-day,” she said in an interview with WUSF before her arrest.
Other advocates were with Nixon throughout the day. The Leon County court docket hasn’t been updated yet with Friday’s arrests and charges.
ALSO READ: Judge weighs challenge to Florida’s new congressional map
“We’re demanding that the governor come back and call for a special session to redraw maps and do them in the right way,” Nixon said.
She says the map violates state constitutional partisan gerrymandering restrictions. A Tallahassee court is considering legal challenges to it.
The day prior, on Thursday, she received a rare reprimand from a Florida House committee after using a bullhorn to protest the final vote on the map.
If you have any questions about state government or the legislative process, you can ask the Your Florida team by clicking here.
This story was produced by WUSF as part of a statewide journalism initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
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