Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the retired Army officer who played a central role in President Donald Trump’s first impeachment, is launching a campaign to represent Florida in the U.S. Senate as a Democrat, entering a contested primary in a state Republicans have recently dominated.
Vindman is best known for testifyingin the 2019 impeachment proceedings about his concerns with a phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Vindman listened in on the call as a Ukraine expert working for the White House, and he became a key part of Democrats’ case that Trump abused his office by pushing Zelensky to investigate a political rival, Joe Biden.
Now Vindman is jumping into electoral politics, seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican Sen. Ashley Moody. Democrats have struggled to compete statewide in recent years in Florida, a onetime swing state that has shifted to the right. The party hopes to make inroads this year and capitalize on a backlash to Trump.
Vindman’s launch video, released Tuesday, opens with news footage from the impeachment proceedings. Trump was narrowly impeached in the Democratic-led House and then acquitted by the Republican-controlled Senate.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) appointedMoody to the Senate seat last year to replace fellow Republican Marco Rubio, who left to become secretary of state. Now Moody, who has Trump’s endorsement, is seeking election to fill out the remainder of Rubio’s term.
Democrats last won a Senate seat in Florida in 2012, and the nonpartisan Cook Political Report ratesMoody’s seat as “solid” Republican. Other Democrats vying for the Senate seat include state Rep. Angie Nixon and Jennifer Jenkins, a former Brevard County school board member who made headlines for flipping an area that Trump won handily.
Many Democratic candidates in competitive primaries — including some former Republicans who once supported Trump — have sought to emphasize the ways they have resisted or opposed him. Vindman’s candidacy will pose an unusual test of how much his high-profile clash with the president resonates with voters.
Vindman said in his 2019 testimonythat he served the country in a “nonpartisan manner.” In a 2020 interview with NBC News, he said he became a “never Trumper” after Trump publicly criticized him.
Vindman’s campaign video alludes to the backlash he faced for testifying. He retired from the military in 2020 over what his attorney at the time called a “campaign of bullying, intimidation and retaliation” from Trump.
“This president unleashed a reign of terror and retribution, not just against me and my family, but against all of us,” Vindman said.
He casts Moody as “a ‘yes’ vote for Trump and the billionaires” and echoes the economic arguments Democrats nationwide have made central to their campaigns, criticizing tariffs and rising health care costs.
Vindman’s twin brother, the retired Army officer Eugene Vindman, will also be on the ballot this year as a Democrat. Eugene Vindman is seeking reelection in a battleground U.S. House district in Virginia.
Alex Vindman has lived in Florida since 2023.
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