Herald endorsement: Florida’s U.S. Senate Democratic primary | Opinion

The Aug. 18 Democratic primary for U.S. Senate features two candidates seeking the party’s nomination to challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody in the fall: Alex Vindman and state Rep. Angie Nixon.

Our choice is Vindman, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, combat veteran and former director on the National Security Council.

Vindman was a key figure in President Donald Trump’s first impeachment in 2019. He testified before Congress that he listened to a phone call during which Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate Joe Biden, then a Democratic candidate.

Vindman’s testimony cost him his career. Now he’s running for the Senate to be, again, a check on presidential power and “make sure that senators exercise the powers that are granted to them by the Constitution” on things like tariffs and war powers.

Unlike Nixon, a Jacksonville native who’s a lifelong Floridian, Vindman, 51, is new to the state. He moved to Davie from Washington, D.C., in 2023.

But in an hour-long interview with the Herald Editorial Board, he showed he understands the main issues affecting the lives of Floridians: the high cost of living and homeowners’ insurance. His foreign-policy expertise would be crucial as a member of the Senate when Trump has invaded Iran, the U.S. has captured Venezuela’s dictator, tensions are high with America’s traditional allies and Russia’s war in Ukraine rages on.

Beyond his resume, Vindman presents himself as a different type of Democrat: “I don’t tend to be kind of ideologically driven. If anything, I chafe against that kind of stuff.”

“People are itching for a change in direction,” he said. “They don’t want somebody that’s going to be kind of an automatic partisan party player.”

In a state that’s turned deep red, Democrats should nominate someone with cross-party appeal. Vindman appears as comfortable talking to Democrats in Broward County as he is the Villages, the ultra-conservative senior community in Central Florida.

(Moody, a former state attorney general appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, doesn’t have a major GOP challenger so we won’t issue an endorsement in that race.)

To address the homeowners’ insurance crisis, Vindman said he would look at a fund with other large states to help keep private insurers in those markets and increase competition to lower premiums — the point, he said, is to “let those market forces come to bear to drive down costs.”

On immigration, Vindman has a personal connection. Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, he came to the U.S. as a Jewish refugee from the Soviet Union when he was a child (he speaks Russian and Ukrainian and studied Spanish).

He’s for strong border security but rejects the Trump administration’s “intentionally cruel” treatment of immigrants. While Nixon supports abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Vindman said the agency needs to be “drastically reformed,” including better trainings for officers and a focus on de-escalation after the deaths of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis.

Vindman said both major parties have failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform, and he would like to “take on this challenge and figure out how to provide a legal status for undocumented” immigrants.

On foreign policy, he opposes the war in Iran but said the country is a “terrorist regime.” He said the U.S. and Israel have a decades-long relationship based on “shared” democratic values and, despite “rot in the leadership of Israel at the moment,” the U.S. should not abandon that alliance. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could leave power after the country holds elections later this year.

Vindman is wary of military action overseas and said the capture of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela was a “half measure” because his regime remains largely unchanged. He said Cuba is in a “uniquely vulnerable position,” isolated from its traditional allies, and the U.S. should leverage “this opportunity right now to push Cuba towards political reforms, towards market reforms.”

Nixon, 42, is a markedly different candidate. She has served in the Florida House since 2020 and previously led Florida for All, a progressive coalition. She wants to close corporate tax loopholes, fund Medicare for All and increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to about $26 per hour.

She’s running because “I am witnessing my 18-year-old have to fight the same fights that I’ve had to fight, that my mom had to fight and that my grandmother had to fight,” she said referring to reproductive and voting rights.

Nixon is passionate about helping working Floridians, but her knowledge of foreign policy is thin compared to Vindman’s.

The Herald endorses ALEX VINDMAN in the U.S. Senate Democratic primary.

This story was originally published July 14, 2026 at 10:49 AM.