Retired Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a former National Security Council official who played a central role in President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial in 2019, entered Florida’s 2026 Senate race Tuesday to unseat Republican Sen. Ashley Moody.
Vindman, who testified about his concerns about a phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, highlighted footage from the impeachment trial in his campaign launch video. Though the Democrat is likely to make his anti-Trump resistance as central part of his campaign pitch, the political newcomer is likely to face an uphill battle in the Republican-leaning Sunshine State the president won by 13 points in November 2024.
“The last time you saw me was here,” Vindman said in a campaign announcement video referencing the impeachment trial. “Swearing an oath to tell the truth about a president who broke his.”
The Senate acquitted Trump in his first impeachment trial in a vote of 52-48.
Vindman’s campaign announcement video also referred to the president as a “wannabe tyrant” and claimed Trump unleashed a “reign of terror and retribution” against him and his family.
Vindman, an Iraq War veteran, left the Army after a decades-long career in 2020 and launched a failed lawsuit against Trump and several aides for “intimidation and retaliation.” His wife, Rachel Vindman, lashed out at former President Joe Biden for not granting the couple a pardon in the final weeks of his term.
“Whatever happens to my family, know this: No pardons were offered or discussed,” Rachel Vindman wrote in a post on Bluesky, adding that she “cannot begin to describe the level of betrayal and hurt” she felt.
Moody, who Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed to succeed Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the Senate, is running for reelection with the backing of Trump and Senate Republicans’ campaign arm. The freshman senator previously served as Florida’s attorney general.
The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the contest as “solid Republican” — the prognosticator’s most favorable rating for Republicans. Democratic Florida Sen. Bill Nelson’s 2012 reelection victory was the last time a Florida Democrat won a Senate race.
Moody and Vindman are running for the 2026 special election contest to serve out the final two years of Rubio’s term. The winner will have to run again in 2028 to secure a full six-year term.
Democrats are mounting a longshot bid to retake Senate control during November’s midterm elections. A Democratic-controlled Senate is unlikely to materialize because the party would have to successfully defend Democratic-held seats in battleground Michigan and Georgia while flipping four GOP-held seats across the country.
Vindman has lived in Florida’s Broward County since 2023. His twin brother, Eugene Vindman, represents a Democratic-leaning House seat in northern Virginia.
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