MIAMI — Democrat Alexander Vindman, the former National Security Council aide who helped trigger President Donald Trump’s first impeachment, announced his Senate campaign in Florida on Tuesday to challenge GOP Sen. Ashley Moody.
Vindman’s entrance into the race pulls Trump’s agenda and record to the forefront of the Senate contest in Florida, bringing a national focus to a race in the president’s home state — one now widely seen as Republican-leaning. Democrats have a narrow path to wrest control of the Senate in November, in which they’d have to keep all the seats they currently hold and flip four others.
Vindman, born in Ukraine when it was still part of the Soviet Union, was an aide on the NSC during Trump’s first term. He testified before Congress about Trump’s 2019 call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after the president floated an investigation of then-presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Trump appeared to tie future U.S. aid to Ukraine’s willingness to launch and announce a probe that would be damaging to Biden.
The Senate acquitted Trump in that case, and Vindman, an Army combat veteran and lieutenant colonel, was fired from his position with the NSC. Vindman went on to become a vocal Trump critic, published two books and worked as a senior adviser for VoteVets, which helps to elect veterans to public office. He first floated a run for Senate in May 2025 on CBS Miami. He said at the time that he thought the 2026 midterms would be a referendum on Trump.
Vindman leans into his run-in with Trump in a campaign video launched Tuesday morning. “This president unleashed a reign of terror and retribution, not just against me and my family, but against all of us,” he said in the two-minute video. “Today, our country is in chaos.”
The Senate seat in Florida is up in a special election this year, and whoever wins will have to run again in 2028. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Moody, a former state attorney general, to the Senate when Marco Rubio became Trump’s secretary of State.
Moody has to run for the seat for the first time in November, and appointed senators have a history of faring less well than those who were elected. But Moody already received Trump’s endorsement and is battle-tested statewide, having won her state attorney general races twice, both times by higher margins than DeSantis’ gubernatorial wins.
Any statewide Democratic candidate faces an uphill climb in Florida, given that Republican voters in the state outnumber Democratic voters by around 1.4 million people. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report also classified the Senate seat in Florida as being in the “Solid R” category — the most GOP-friendly ranking available.
Moody, who comes from a prominent legal family and isn’t facing a serious GOP challenger, has Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio on her campaign team. And former Trump campaign co-chair Chris LaCivita has a key role in a super PAC supporting her election.
Vindman’s campaign video draws attention to affordability issues that appeared to have had an impact in the better-than-expected showing Democrats had in 2025 races. He also brought attention to higher Obamacare premiums that kicked in this year. Moody — along with most Senate Republicans — didn’t support extending enhanced subsidies for premiums, a decision GOP pollsters previously warned would be unpopular.
In his campaign video, Vindman accused Moody of having been tapped to the Senate to “be a ‘yes’ vote for Trump and the billionaires.”
“She’s not Florida’s senator,” says Vindman’s narration in the campaign video. “She’s theirs.”
Vindman, who lives in Democratic stronghold Broward County, enters an increasingly crowded Democratic primary that includes former Brevard County school board member Jennifer Jenkins; progressive state Rep. Angie Nixon; and Hector Mujica, a Venezuelan-American candidate who previously was head of philanthropy at Google for the Americas.
Politics are also in Vindman’s family. His twin brother, Eugene Vindman, was elected to represent Virginia in Congress in 2024, in the seat formerly held by now-Gov. Abigail Spanberger.
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