Retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman has thrown his rather large and oleaginous hat into the ring for Florida's 2026 election to fill the remainder of Marco Rubio's term. Under Florida law, the death or resignation of a senator or member of the House triggers a special election. When Marco Rubio, who won his 2022 race by 16 points, resigned last January to become President Trump's Secretary of State, National Security Adviser, administrator of the US Agency for International Development, the Archivist of National Archives and Records Administration, and is rumored to be the future governor of Greenland and president of Cuba and Venezuela, Governor Ron DeSantis appointed Florida's attorney general, Ashley Moody, to hold the position until the special election in Novermber.
Vindman announced his entry with a video spot called "Patriot."
WOLF BLITZER:Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, a National Security Council official who testified against the president during the impeachment hearings, has been fired. Jim, the president has been fuming about Vindman, apparently, ever since he testified.
VINDMAN: The last time you saw me was here swearing an oath to tell the truth about a president who broke his
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. This president unleashed a reign of terror and retribution not just against me and my family, but against all of us. Today, our country is in chaos. Thug militias attacking citizens. Tariffs pushing prices sky-high. Healthcare premiums through the roof. And Florida homeowners are being absolutely screwed because Ashley Moody caved to the big insurance companies.
They put Moody in the Senate to be a yes vote for Trump and the billionaires. She's not Florida Senator, she's theirs. I'm Alex Vindman and I'm running to be your voice in the Senate.
I served 21 years in the army, was wounded in Iraq. I served presidents of both parties and I've seen corruption in Washington up close.
Over a million dollars in Moody's corporate stock was traded last year while she had access to insider information only Congress gets, that should be outlawed. They gutted disaster assistance for people trying to rebuild their lives, but she's okay with $40 billion bailouts for Argentina. Where's the bailout for Florida's families?
I stepped up when my country needed a soldier. I stood up when someone had to say no one is above the law. I'm asking you, stand with me now to put a check on Donald Trump and the corrupt politicians who think your tax dollars are their personal piggy bank. The billionaires and the special interests will throw everything they've got to try to stop us. But in infantry, we didn't back down from a fight. In a democracy, you decide who's going to stand for you, the patriot or the politician.
Join us.
As you recall, Vindman is the central figure in Trump's first impeachment, where he used his access to a classified readout of a call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to start the impeachment process.
BACKGROUND:
LTC Vindman: Involving the Military in Political Fights – RedState
I can't find out when Vindman decided to decamp from the Washington suburbs to Florida, but it seems to have happened sometime in 2025. This interview on the Miami CBS affiliate, from May 2025, is the first hint that Vindman may be running for office on the Carpetbagging Democrat ticket.
Vindman's unique selling proposition is that he is honest, or at least as honest as anyone who breaks their oath of office, misuses classified information, and attempts to participate in a soft coup on a sitting president. And that he's against the Notorious Tyrant Trump. Again, Trump carried the state by ten points and beat Kamala Harris by 13.
The Democrat field has four definite candidates and eight others have filed paperwork opening the way for a run. In fairness, the Democrat nomination is probably Vindman's to lose because of the flaccidity of the field. In fact, Vindman oozes that Beto O'Rourke ambiance of a loser and a poseur who can't win but who can convince Democrat donors that he, through his love for doughnuts, can turn Florida blue. On the first day of Vindman's campaign, he raised $1.7 million from "36,000 contributions total — with 99 percent of online donations totaling $100 or less." I wouldn't count on that volume of donations continuing; see Panic Hits Democrats As Trump Goes After Their Money and Infrastructure – RedState.
So why does this rotund oxygen thief suddenly show an interest in running for office in some place where winning isn't likely?
I think the reason is much more self-interested and has less to do with standing up to "tyranny" than with saving Vindman's rather ample behind from the consequences of his illegal acts in 2020.
During the 2024 campaign, President Trump made it known that he intended to bring to justice those people involved in what appears to be a massive electoral fraud campaign that put the obviously demented Joe Biden in the White House. Since then we've seen the illegally appointed "special counsel," Jack Smith grilled in public and private over his "Arctic Frost" investigation that encompassed President Trujmp and other prominent elected GOP officials (Brandon Gill Trounces Jack Smith and Leaves Him in the Dust During Epic Grilling – RedState); some 315,000 seemingly illegal ballots have been revealed to have been processed in Fulton County, Georgia ('We Don't Dispute' It: Georgia 315k Vote Bombshell Blows a Big Hole in 2020's 'Most Secure Election' Lie – RedState) which has led to an federal search warrant and an FBI raid on that county's voting office; see FBI Raids Fulton County Election Hub Days After Trump Vows Prosecutions for 2020 Election - Here We Go – RedState.
Vindman is up to his unibrow in the Deep State effort to prevent Trump from being reelected in 2020. If that isn't known now, it will be known before President Trump leaves office in 2029. By running for office, Vindman can claim that any investigation is just Trump being vindictive; note his "retribution...against me and my family" comment in his ad? Even though his campaign is going nowhere, it will still raise money, both legit contributions on the theory that this will force the GOP to spend money in what should be a practically uncontested race, and from ActBlue smurfing of funds. Vindman can divert campaign funds to his legal defense on the theory that these charges wouldn't have been brought but for his running for office, and he can use his candidacy to fund a legal defense fund.
The two takeaways from this are that Vindman has a √-1 chance of winning, and he knows it. I'm not an expert on Florida politics, but Ron DeSantis isn't going to put an insurance industry shill in the Senate. As no hurricanes hit Florida this year, I suspect his claim about "disaster assistance" is likewise phony. The campaign is a grift designed to muddy the waters around any prosecution related to President Trump's first impeachment and to fund his legal defense. We have to turn out to vote, but he really isn't in this to win. The other bit of good news is that if there is evidence he was involved in what looks like an internal coup attempt against President Trump by the intelligence community, he's going to need every dime of whatever legal defense money he raises. What doesn't go to lawyers can be put in his prison canteen account.
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