Retired Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who testified against President Donald Trump during his first impeachment, is running for the U.S. Senate in Florida, seeking the Democratic nomination to face Republican Sen. Ashley Moody in a November special election.
Moody, a former state attorney general, was appointed to the seat after Marco Rubio became secretary of state, and the winner of this year’s race will serve out the remaining two years of Rubio’s term.
In a launch video and statement on Jan. 27, Vindman framed the race as a choice between the “patriot” and the “politician,” casting himself as a career public servant willing to challenge powerful interests. His aim, he said, is to “crush corruption, end the chaos, cut costs, and make Florida a more affordable place to live.”
Vindman, a U.S. National Security Council aide, came to public attention at a congressional hearing in 2019, when his description of a call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy led in part to Trump’s first impeachment. Trump has said the whistleblower’s description was politically motivated.
Ukrainian-born Vindman and his identical twin brother, Eugene, who was also serving on the National Security Council, reported concerns about the call, and those reports helped trigger the impeachment. Eugene Vindman is now a congressman representing Virginia.
“The last time you saw me was here, swearing an oath to tell the truth about a president who broke his,” Vindman said in the video.
The announcement video links Vindman’s message to Trump’s immigration and economic policies. He criticizes what he calls tariffs that “pushed prices sky-high” and health care premiums that he says are “through the roof.” The video also references the recent killing of two U.S. citizens during immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota.
Vindman’s campaign is presenting his military and government service as central credentials. The launch statement describes him as a 21-year Army combat veteran who led “hundreds of people in high-pressure situations where lives depended on people devoted to the mission and not themselves.” He was wounded in Iraq and received a Purple Heart.
Florida, once a battleground state and now Trump’s legal residence, has shifted toward Republicans in recent years, and Democrats have not won a Senate race there since 2012.
“The billionaires and the special interests will throw everything they’ve got to try to stop us,” Vindman said. “But in the infantry, we didn’t back down from a fight. In a democracy, you decide who’s gonna stand for you—the patriot, or the politician. Join us.”
After Vindman announced his candidacy, former school board member Jennifer Jenkins, who had been seeking the Democratic nomination, dropped out and put her support behind Vindman.
“I’m so proud of this campaign and the fight we started,” she wrote in a social media post accompanied by a video. “Florida is too important to stay divided, which is why I’ve decided to step aside and proudly endorse [Vindman] for U.S. Senate.”
Vindman faces nine other candidates so far who have filed for the Democratic primary, not including Jenkins, according to federal election records. Moody faces eight challengers so far, according to federal election records of those having filed to run for the seat in the Republican primary.
According to the Florida Division of Elections, the primary will be held on Aug. 18 before the Nov. 3 election.
Vindman announced on Jan. 28 that he had raised $1.7 million from more than 36,000 donors in the first 24 hours of the campaign. SEC records for the latest reporting period ending Sept. 30, 2025, showed that Moody had $3.6 million in cash on hand at the end of September.
