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By Shane Croucher
Senior Editor
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Alexander Vindman, a U.S. Army veteran and former national security official who played a key role in the first impeachment of Republican President Donald Trump, said he is running for the U.S. Senate in Florida as a Democrat.
Vindman, 50, made reference to Trump's impeachment in the video announcing his Senate run, using footage from his testimony at the time in 2019, saying, "The last time you saw me was here, swearing an oath to tell the truth about a president who broke his."
The Democratic-majority House impeached Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, but he denied any wrongdoing and was acquitted of both after a trial by the Republican-majority Senate.
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Ukraine-born Vindman was serving on the National Security Council in 2019 when Trump urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden, then a Democratic candidate.
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He and his brother, Eugene Vindman, a lawyer on the National Security Council who now serves as a Democratic congressman from Virginia, reported their concerns and sparked investigations that led to the impeachment of Trump.
"See, my family came to America as refugees to escape tyranny. And I sure as hell was not going to bow down to some wannabe tyrant," Vindman said in his Senate campaign video, accusing Trump of launching a subsequent "reign of terror and retribution" against him and his family.
Vindman was forced out of the National Security Council and later retired from the Army after testifying against Trump during impeachment hearings. He has since grown his public profile on social media and cable news shows, where he is a regular critic of Trump and his Republican administration.
He becomes the most prominent Democrat in the Florida Senate contest as the party tries to reclaim the Senate majority in this fall's midterm elections.
If Vindman secures the Democratic nomination, he'll challenge Republican Senator Ashley Moody, a former state attorney general appointed to fill the seat vacated by Marco Rubio as he became secretary of state in the current Trump administration.
The winner of November's special election will finish the last two years of Rubio's term.
But the onetime swing state, which is Trump's legal residence, his home address being his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, has swung decidedly red in recent years. A Democrat has not won a Senate seat there since 2012.
Still, Democrats are hopeful that Vindman's fundraising prowess and the national political environment—including the backlash against Trump's immigration crackdown and his lack of focus on the economy—gives them a chance.
This article includes reporting by The Associated Press.
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