WASHINGTON — A star witness in President Trump’s first impeachment launched a campaign for the US Senate in Florida on Tuesday, seeking to follow his identical twin brother’s footsteps to Congress.
Alexander Vindman is an underdog attempting to dispatch GOP Sen. Ashley Moody, who took Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s old seat earlier this year.
The retired Army lieutenant colonel has fashioned himself as a Trump attack dog — after testifying before Congress about a 2019 call Trump had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which Trump pressed for help digging up dirt on the Biden family.
“The last time you saw me was here, swearing an oath to tell the truth about a president who broke his,” Vindman declared in a campaign launch video showing his testimony against Trump.
“My parents came to America as refugees to escape tyranny, and I sure as hell was not going to bow down to some wannabe tyrant,” said Vindman, who was born in Ukraine under the Soviet Union. “This president unleashed a reign of terror not just against me and my family, but against all of us.”
At Trump’s House impeachment hearings, Democrats accused him of appearing to condition an aid package to Ukraine on whether Kyiv fulfilled that request.
Trump was impeached — meaning he had the charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress brought against him — by the House, but the Senate acquitted him at its version of a trial.
The president was impeached by the House again in 2021 involving charges related to the Jan. 6 riots but was again acquitted by the Senate.
Vindman was fired from his perch on the National Security Council, where he served as an aide, after Trump’s first impeachment.
Should Democrats retake control of the House, some of Trump’s allies fear that they will initiate a third round of impeachment proceedings against the president.
Alexander Vindman’s brother, Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-Va.), successfully ran for a House seat previously held by Democratic Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger in 2024.
The Post previously reported how Eugene’s campaign mysteriously dropped $38,783 in what it labeled a “fundraising expense” at a Florida bookstore last year, where Alexander held signing events.
Eugene’s team declined to respond to Post questions about whether it was helping to pad Alexander’s book sales with campaign cash.
A worker at the bookstore did not know whether campaign cash went to Alexander’s books but told The Post that Eugene’s team had called earlier in the day, inquiring how the store would respond to a reporter asking questions.
Eugene was later hit with a Federal Election Commission complaint over the incident.
Moody, who previously served as Florida’s attorney general, was appointed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to replace Rubio last year and is facing a special election in November.
The seat has been deemed “solid” Republican by the election handicapper Cook Political Report.
Democrats haven’t won a Senate seat in Florida since 2012, and the Sunshine State has seemingly grown redder in the time since. Moody also enjoys Trump’s backing and performed even stronger than DeSantis statewide during her bids to be attorney general.
Republicans are defending 22 Senate seats compared to the Democrats’ 13. While the 2026 midterm elections are expected to be a blue wave, there are only two GOP-held Senate seats deemed toss-ups by the Cook Political Report.
