Trump Impeachment Star Witness Alexander Vindman Makes Longshot Run For Senate
Retired 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. Although the Democrat will likely make his anti-Trump resistance central to his campaign pitch, the political newcomer will likely face an uphill battle in the Republican-leaning Sunshine State, which the president won by 13 points in November 2024. (RELATED: ‘Betrayal’: Wife of Witness Against Trump Says She’s Extremely Upset Her Family Didn’t Get Pardon from Biden)
“The last time you saw me was here,” Vindman said in a campaign announcement video referring to the impeachment trial. “Take an oath to tell the truth about a president who has broken his. »
The Senate acquitted Trump in his first impeachment trial by a vote of 52 to 48.
WATCH:
My name is Alex Vindman and I am running for U.S. Senate. Chaos, corruption and exorbitant costs crush ordinary people, while billionaires and career politicians profit.
I stepped up when my country needed a soldier, I exposed corruption at the highest levels of… pic.twitter.com/AJhk13B6ZA
– Alexander S. Vindman 🇺🇸 (@AVindman) January 27, 2026
Vindman’s campaign announcement video also called the president a “wannabe tyrant” and claimed that Trump had unleashed a “reign of terror and retaliation” against him and his family.
Vindman, an Iraq War veteran, left the military after a decades-long career in 2020 and launched an unsuccessful 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 during the final weeks of his term.
“Whatever happened to my family, know this: No mercy was offered or discussed,” Rachel Vindman wrote in an article on Bluesky, adding that she “cannot begin to describe the level of betrayal and hurt” she felt.
Moody, whom Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis nominated to succeed Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the Senate, is running for re-election with the support of Trump and the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm. The freshman senator previously served as Florida’s attorney general.
WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 1: Senator Ashley Moody (R-FL) leaves the Senate Chamber of the United States Capitol on October 1, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
The nonpartisan Cook Political Report calls the contest “solid Republican” — the prognosticator’s most favorable rating for Republicans. Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson’s re-election in 2012 was the last time a Florida Democrat won a Senate race.
Moody and Vindman are running in the 2026 special election to serve the final two years of Rubio’s term. The winner will have to run again in 2028 to obtain a full six-year term.
Democrats are trying to regain control of the Senate in November’s midterm elections. A Democratic-controlled Senate is unlikely to come to fruition, as the party is expected to successfully defend Democratic-held seats in the battlegrounds of Michigan and Georgia, while flipping four Republican-held seats across the country.
Vindman has lived in Broward County, Florida since 2023. His twin brother, Eugene Vindman, represents a Democratic-leaning House seat in northern Virginia.
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