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...
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