Complaint targets fundraising and campaign use of bookstore
The watchdog said it submitted the complaint to six federal and state agencies. Recipients included the IRS, the Federal Election Commission, John Heekin, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Florida, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier and the Florida Department of Agriculture, which oversees charitable solicitations. The complaint says that "Ms. Nixon and any of her accomplices should be criminally prosecuted for committing this fraudulent solicitation scheme."
Nixon solicited donations in 2024 for Moxie Group Inc., her nonprofit, saying the money would support Cafe Resistance in Jacksonville. But the bookstore opened that year under a separate, for-profit LLC she controls, also named the Moxie Group. The Washington Free Beacon reported that the charity has not filed its 2024 Form 990 with the IRS, leaving the disposition of the fundraising proceeds unexplained in a federal return nearly a year after the filing deadline.
The complaint also challenges the bookstore's role in Nixon's Senate race. It alleges that her campaign has had unrestricted, free access to the premises throughout 2026 for rallies, phone banks and fundraising events. Federal law generally bars corporations and charities from providing free services to campaigns; the Free Beacon reported that the limited exceptions do not appear to cover Nixon's entities.
Nixon's campaign did not respond to a request for comment. She won the August Democratic primary in an upset over Alex Vindman and faces Republican Sen. Ashley Moody, Florida's former attorney general, on November 3. Nixon is the first Democratic Socialists of America member to receive a major-party nomination for statewide office.
State filings detail revenue but leave spending questions
A financial statement Nixon submitted to the Florida Department of Agriculture in January 2025 put the charity's 2024 revenue at more than $271,000. Grants accounted for $144,000, with funding from liberal grantmaking nonprofits including the Groundswell Fund, the Women Donors Network and the Amalgamated Charitable Foundation.
The charity's state report identified $14,000 in occupancy costs and $19,400 paid to contract workers. It placed $214,000 in an unexplained category labeled "other" expenditures. The missing Form 990 would require more detailed financial disclosure than the state report.
The Free Beacon also identified a shared point of contact between the nonprofit and the commercial bookstore: the email address listed in the charity's Agriculture Department disclosures is used to book birthday parties and private events at Cafe Resistance. The outlet said revenue from those bookings presumably goes to Nixon's LLC.
Legal and tax specialists interviewed by the Free Beacon in September questioned whether the arrangement allowed charitable money to benefit Nixon or her company improperly. Former IRS nonprofit law specialist Patrick Sternal described the intermingling as "itself problematic" and said it "looks like private inurement." He said private inurement is "absolutely prohibited under 501(c)(3)." The term refers to an insider improperly benefiting from nonprofit assets, conduct that can bring civil penalties and criminal embezzlement charges.
Dissolution dates and licensing under scrutiny
Nixon says she dissolved the charity in December 2025. The Free Beacon, however, reported that it continued taking donations and offering tax-deduction receipts into late September 2026. The watchdog argues that soliciting online contributions for a dissolved charity amounts to federal felony wire fraud and violates the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.
NLPC attorney Paul Kamenar urged the Justice Department and Florida's attorney general to subpoena records from Nixon's personal bank account, the charity, the bookstore and her campaign committee. He said those records were needed to trace some $200,000 in contributions that remained unaccounted for.
Separately from Nixon's claimed December 2025 dissolution, the Florida Department of State dissolved the charity as a business entity on September 25, 2026, according to the Free Beacon. That was the day the outlet contacted Nixon with questions. The online donation portal was still soliciting tax-exempt contributions that day but had closed by the afternoon of September 26.
The charity's state solicitation license had expired on January 28, 2026. Agriculture Department communications director Aaron Keller said the agency was reviewing whether it sought contributions while unregistered.
The bookstore also faced a licensing issue. Loomered reported that Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation records dated August 20, 2026, listed Cafe Resistance Bookstore & Coffee Shop as a permanent food-service operation with both "Delinquent" and "Active" license statuses. Its food-service license had expired on June 1.
Nixon's financial disclosures
Nixon's reported net worth has shifted sharply. Her disclosures as a state lawmaker showed a negative $100,752 in 2022, a positive $12,852 in 2023 and a negative $256,000 in 2024.
A financial affidavit accompanying her 2024 divorce petition put her negative net worth at more than $256,000 and showed that her monthly spending exceeded her earnings by nearly $3,000. She withdrew the divorce petition in late September 2026.
For 2025, Nixon disclosed a break-even net worth and at least $270,000 in income from employment and investments. The Free Beacon reported that $90,000 came from Building Blocks Strategies, a company run by a Washington, D.C.-based anti-ICE activist who is a business partner of Nixon's campaign treasurer. Nixon does not receive a salary from her campaign.
The NLPC had previously made a criminal referral concerning Nixon's omission of a $14,000 IRS tax debt from her Senate financial disclosure.
Separate questions about campaign reporting
On October 15, the Florida GOP said the FEC had issued multiple Requests for Additional Information to Nixon's Senate campaign. According to the party, the requests questioned apparently excessive or improperly designated contributions, along with a $300 contribution from an organization that was not registered as a federal political committee.
The party said the FEC also sought explanations for an amended April quarterly report that reduced previously reported receipts by $78,941.28 and for incorrect cycle-to-date totals on 11 lines of the July quarterly report. According to the Florida GOP, the commission warned that an audit or formal enforcement action could follow if the campaign failed to correct or adequately explain the issues by October 22.
