Impeachment Witness Alex Vindman Enters Florida Special Senate Race

Alexander Vindman, the retired Army lieutenant colonel who testified against Donald Trump in his first impeachment, has announced a Democratic bid for the U.S. Senate in Florida, setting up a potential November special‑election challenge to appointed Republican Sen. Ashley Moody. Vindman was serving on the National Security Council in 2019 when he and his twin brother, then‑NSC lawyer Eugene Vindman, reported Trump’s pressure campaign on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate Joe Biden, triggering House impeachment proceedings; both later left the NSC, and Alex retired from the Army. The Florida seat opened when Marco Rubio became secretary of state, and this special will decide who serves the remaining two years of his term in a state that has trended solidly Republican and where Democrats haven’t won a Senate race since 2012. In his launch video, Vindman brands Trump a "wannabe tyrant" and calls federal immigration agents "thug militias," highlighting video of two U.S. citizens killed during the Minnesota deportation crackdown and promising to "put a check on Donald Trump and the corrupt politicians who think your tax dollars are their personal piggybank." National Democratic strategists see his national profile and fundraising potential as assets in what remains an uphill fight, hoping backlash to Trump’s immigration campaign and voter frustration over his economic focus can make a deep‑red state at least competitive.