'Stop gaslighting me!': Florida Democrats' Senate nominee and party chair have heated call over socialism

Florida's new Democratic Senate nominee, Angie Nixon , and the state party's chair had a heated conversation Friday which included a yelling match about the impact of socialism and the challenges of campaigning in a red state like Florida, three people familiar with the conversation tell Axios.

Why it matters: The conflict exposes the fault line in the party between the progressive base embodied by Nixon and the establishment represented by the state party's chair, Nikki Fried.

Democrats already face an uphill battle in their effort to unseat Republican Sen.

Ashley Moody.

An escalating war of words between Nixon and Fried complicates efforts to unify Democrats.

Zoom in: Nixon, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America who won the primary in a shocking upset over Alex Vindman earlier this week, expressed frustrations to Fried that she had not received sufficient help from the state party.

Fried, in return, warned that Nixon's ties to the DSA could give an opening to the GOP to attack her, sources told us.

According to two people who spoke with Nixon, both she and Fried yelled at each other over the course of the call.

Another person who spoke to Fried said the chair did not yell but was yelled at.

"Nikki wants her to back away from DSA, from socialism," said one person who spoke with Nixon.

"She's listening to other people saying that they're afraid, they're scared — the Jewish members and the Hispanic caucus.

But to Angie, Nikki doesn't want Angie to be who Angie is.

Angie has already done the backing-away." On the call, Nixon told Fried, "You never gave a care about me from the beginning, and now you're telling me how to run my campaign?" according to the source.

At one point, the source said, Nixon yelled, "stop gaslighting me!" The other side: A Florida Democratic Party official disputed that Fried yelled at Nixon.