Alexander Vindman, the former National Security Council official who testified against President Donald Trump during his first impeachment hearings, is running for Senate in Florida, he announced Tuesday.
Vindman, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, will vie for the Democratic nomination to unseat Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., who was appointed to the Senate early last year by Republican governor Ron DeSantis after Marco Rubio left the role to assume his post as secretary of state.
Moody was Florida’s attorney general before she took over the Senate seat.
The two-minute ad Vindman released announcing his run, “Patriot,” focuses on his testimony against Trump and the backlash he faced from the president.
Trump fired Vindman after his October 2019 testimony before the House Select Committee. Vindman said he had overheard the July 2019 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in which Trump requested the Ukrainians investigate Joe Biden and his family. Vindman testified that he was concerned that Trump’s demands could “undermine U.S. national security.”
Vindman refers to Trump’s subsequent retaliation in the ad.
“This president unleashed a reign of terror and retribution — not just against me and my family, but against all of us,” Vindman says.
“Today our country is in chaos,” Vindman says over footage of the recent violence in Minneapolis, including the shooting of 37-year-old mother Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. “Thug militias attacking citizens.”
The ad also notes Moody’s support for Trump.
“They put Moody in the Senate to be a ‘yes’ vote for Trump and the billionaires,” he says. “She’s not Florida’s senator — she’s theirs.”
A spokesperson for Moody did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Vindman’s candidacy from MS NOW.
Vindman will face off against a crowded field of 10 other candidates in the August Democratic primary. The November special election will be held to determine who will serve out the rest of Rubio’s term, which ends in 2029.
Florida has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 2012, when incumbent Bill Nelson won reelection.
Julianne McShane is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW who also covers the politics of abortion and reproductive rights. You can send her tips from a non-work device on Signal at jmcshane.19 or follow her on X or Bluesky.