Less than two months before Election Day, a social media post by a Florida Democratic Party (FDP) caucus leader, identifying members of the Jewish community as “the Face of Racism and Hate,” has triggered a rupture in the organization over antisemitism, anti-Blackness and the party’s response to both.
The post, by Democratic Black Caucus of Florida President Armando Grundy-Gomes, drew censure from former U.S. Senate candidate Alex Vindman. It also prompted a veteran political strategist to shed her Democratic affiliation and a congressional candidate to distance himself from the party.
Grundy-Gomes maintains that he was criticizing specific people, not Jewish people broadly, and trying to draw attention to what he sees as a double standard on anti-Blackness in the Democratic Party.
But Jewish Democrats and Vindman’s allies say Grundy-Gomes’ phrasing transformed a dispute about individual conduct into a sweeping accusation against a minority community.
The controversy began with a Sept. 2 Facebook post in which Grundy-Gomes wrote that Florida Democrats condemn racism from Republicans while remaining silent about anti-Blackness within their own ranks.
He opened with the declaration, “The Face of Racism and Hate happen (sic) to be members of our Jewish Community.”
Grundy-Gomes named far-right activist Laura Loomer, U.S. Homeland Security Adviser Stephen Miller and Rachel Vindman, wife of the former Senate candidate.
Loomer has a documented history of racist and anti-Muslim rhetoric, while Miller has promoted hardline immigration policies and the “great replacement” theory.
Florida Politics found no public instance in which Rachel Vindman made an overtly racist statement, though some framed comments she made about her husband’s Primary opponent as veiled bigotry.
“Laura Loomer, Rachel Vindman, and Stephen Miller are Jewish, and that does not exempt their words, actions, or rhetoric from scrutiny when they promote or contribute to racism, anti-Blackness, or hatred,” Grundy-Gomes wrote.
In response to a commenter who said he agreed with the post “100 percent,” Grundy-Gomes wrote, “You are the exception and not the rule, when it comes to Jewish people having the courage (of) their convictions.”
Within hours, Alex Vindman responded on Facebook, writing that Grundy-Gomes’ characterization of his wife was “antisemitic and disqualifying for someone who is part of the Florida Democratic Party.”
Vindman said the party should condemn both antisemitism and racism without treating either as secondary.
“Every Democrat should condemn this heinous statement and if they don’t, they shouldn’t be in office,” he said. “More broadly, we as Democrats must address the rise of antisemitism within the Democratic Party. It’s extremely prevalent and contrary to everything we as the party are supposed to stand for.”
FDP Jewish Caucus President Rick Stark did not address Grundy-Gomes by name, but told Florida Politics his group rejects “sweeping generalizations that target our community with hate.”
“We remain firmly committed to standing with our caucus partners to defeat bigotry in all its forms and hope others will commit to doing the same,” he said. “Let’s not let divisive rhetoric divide us as we work to elect Democrats up and down the ballot.”
A break from the party
The disagreement soon became more than a social media dispute.
In a Sept. 3 letter to FDP Chair Nikki Fried and other party leaders, veteran strategist Vanessa Brito said she was resigning from the party and pulling retired Navy Commander Phil Ehr’s campaign for Florida’s 28th Congressional District out of coordination with the state party.
Brito, who manages Ehr’s campaign, criticized the party for failing to intervene on Vindman’s behalf, decrying what she viewed as a broader pattern of using supporters’ service, personal stories and contributions while disregarding their concerns.
She cited Vindman’s background as a Jewish refugee who left the Soviet Union as a child, his two decades of military service, his Purple Heart and his role in raising internal concerns about President Donald Trump’s 2019 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
She also noted that Vindman endorsed Jacksonville Rep. Angie Nixon after badly losing the Senate Primary to her and later contributed $400,000 to the FDP, with more money promised to come.
“This party found more patience for people who excuse communist dictatorships like the one that destroyed my family than it found for a Jewish refugee who bled for this country and gave the Florida Democratic Party nearly half a million dollars,” Brito wrote, referring to the party’s tolerance of socialist influencers like Hasan Piker and members of Congress who visit Cuba to meet with regime officials.
“You do not get to praise the uniform while abandoning the veteran who wore it. You do not get to cash his check and then help destroy the family behind it.”
Fried told Florida Politics that rapid public reactions do not necessarily produce understanding and “rarely combat racism or antisemitism.”
“More often, they generate anger without generating understanding,” she said. “If we want to make real progress, it starts with listening, genuinely, to people’s lived experiences.”
Both anti-Black and anti-Jewish hate crimes remain historically elevated nationally, even after recent declines.
FBI data the Anti-Defamation League analyzed in August showed anti-Jewish hate crimes fell 21% in 2025 to 1,528, the third-highest annual total on record, while the Southern Poverty Law Center reported anti-Black hate incidents declined from 3,455 to 3,262, also using FBI information.
Black Americans remain the most targeted group in race-based hate crimes.
Alex Vindman said Democrats face an internal challenge to confront racism and antisemitism without allowing either concern to be used against the other.
“This moment calls for unity,” he said. “It’s hard enough for Democrats to score statewide wins in Florida. Shame on anyone driving divisions and attacking the coalitions necessary to win.”
An alleged double standard
Grundy-Gomes has not retracted the post. In a half-hour phone call with Florida Politics, he said he did not intend to characterize all Jewish Americans as racist and would never make such a statement about “an entire people.”
He argued that while Democrats are virtually spring-loaded to rebuke Republicans for hateful behavior, the party is reticent when objectionable comments originate from their own side.
That, he said, is why he juxtaposed Loomer and Miller with Rachel Vindman.
Grundy-Gomes pointed to a social media post Rachel Vindman later deleted and apologized for, in which she called Nixon “a shitty human” and criticized Nixon’s clothing after Nixon supporters pressed Alex Vindman over his support for Israel and whether he would take money from the American Israel Political Action Committee at a July party gathering.
Several Democrats criticized the post, including Ocoee Sen. LaVon Bracy Davis, who blasted it as “disgusting, tone deaf and beyond out of touch.” Nixon, meanwhile, responded with a “fit check” video showing off an outfit she said she bought mostly from Goodwill that cost just over $10.
But the FDP remained mum on the matter — a stark contrast, Grundy-Gomes said, with its denunciation of Loomer after she used racist and misogynistic invectives against Nixon, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and other Black Democratic women last month.
“That’s what I’m calling hypocrisy,” he said. “I’m talking about what anti-Black racism is. And I find people using it to call (former congressional candidate) Bernard Taylor antisemitic, Angie Nixon antisemitic and attempts to call me antisemitic is also antisemitic. It’s racist.”
He also argued, with substantiation, that his record does not reflect hostility toward Jewish people — quite the contrary. In a December 2023 op-ed for American University’s student newspaper, Grundy-Gomes condemned Hamas, called the “From the river to the sea” chant hateful and declared that he stood with both Jews and innocent Palestinians in the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict.
He told Florida Politics that he previously defended Fried, whom he said he still stands with, and backed Alachua County School Board Member Sarah Rockwell when they faced discriminatory attacks. Both are Jewish.
But he lamented not seeing comparable reciprocity when Black Democrats raise concerns about anti-Black discrimination.
“You cannot demand that the Democratic Party confront antisemitism while refusing to seriously confront anti-Blackness within our own Party,” he wrote in a follow-up Facebook post. “And we should not have to choose between the two.”
A fight over accountability
When asked for examples beyond Rachel Vindman’s post about Nixon that he believed showed racism or anti-Blackness, Grundy-Gomes said, “That’s something you could look up.”
Florida Politics did. The most extensive public case located was an Aug. 6 blog post by lawyer and Nixon supporter Qasim Rashid, who cited Rachel Vindman’s post about Nixon and a November 2023 response she wrote to Virginia Delegate Joshua Cole, who had questioned the local ties of Virginia U.S. Rep. Eugene Vindman, Alex Vindman’s twin brother.
“Also, who are you? Never heard of you,” she wrote in response to an almost identical query on the platform from Cole.
Pressed repeatedly about the phrasing of his post identifying members of the Jewish community as “the Face of Racism and Hate,” Grundy-Gomes eventually acknowledged his wording was flawed, but said he would not retreat from his position.
“Could I have worded it better? Sure. I’ll take that criticism,” he said.
“But I’m not running from the fact that I look at those people as hateful and racist, and what other people like Angie Nixon experienced on the campaign trail was disgusting. I’m going to ask the Florida Democratic Party to start talking about anti-Blackness because it is a very real thing.”
Vindman said Grundy-Gomes was right that Loomer’s attacks on Nixon demanded condemnation, but wrong to use Jewish identity as a collective frame for hate.
“It is possible — and necessary — to condemn Laura Loomer’s racism and antisemitism at the same time,” he said. “Branding Jewish people as ‘the Face’ of hatred is not accountability. It is a harmful generalization.”
During the Primary, Alex Vindman also voiced concern about antisemitism among some progressive activists. In a July Zoom meeting with the FDP Jewish Caucus, he said he had expected antisemitism from the nationalist right but was alarmed by what he saw on the left, including among the Democratic Socialists of America wing, which Nixon joined in June.
Grundy-Gomes said Vindman’s own prejudices were exposed by his Primary itinerary, arguing the former candidate did not sufficiently engage Black voters.
“He didn’t show up,” Grundy-Gomes said. “He didn’t knock on Black people’s doors. He didn’t come to the Black Caucus. He didn’t talk to Black voters. He didn’t even talk to his opponent, and she beat him by 12 points.”
Vindman’s campaign did focus heavily on U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody, the Republican whom Nixon now faces, rather than Nixon herself — a strategic mistake Florida Politics highlighted just under a month from the Primary Election Day.
But campaign schedules, video and documentary evidence show he attended the Volusia County Democratic Black Caucus’ Black and Blue Gala, appeared at Black churches in multiple parts of Florida, participated in an Aug. 14 candidates meet-and-greet event hosted by the Lee County NAACP and included Black community leaders like Gayle Andrews on his advisory board.
Florida Politics contacted Nixon and her campaign for comment, but received no response.
