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<\/figure>\n\nAlex Vindman<\/b> isn\u2019t responsible for the political <\/b>fatigue many Democrats in Florida have developed over the last decade.<\/p>\n
But he is well aware that he has to deal with it as he runs for Senate in his newly adopted home state.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a \u2018prove it\u2019 element here,\u201d Vindman told me this week. \u201cThat dynamic is at play, and I kind of understand it because there\u2019s lots of scar tissue around Florida with flawed candidates in extremely challenging environments.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vindman argued, however, that things are different this year and he can do what no Democrat has been able to do over the past decade: break through Republicans\u2019 hold on Florida. The atmosphere, he said, is in Democrats\u2019 favor. Trump is increasingly unpopular in the state. Vindman has raised a ton of money (over $16 million since launching his campaign<\/a>). And he is running against Sen. Ashley Moody<\/b>, someone who is facing voters for the first time as a senator after she was elevated to the role last year to replace Secretary of State Marco Rubio until a special election could be held.<\/p>\n Vindman is, despite his buoyancy, a major long shot to win in November and will first have to defeat state Rep. Angela Nixon<\/b> in the Aug. 20 primary.<\/p>\n Over the past decade, Florida has become a state that Republicans outright dominate, controlling every state executive office, both chambers of the state legislature, both Senate seats and 20 of the state\u2019s 28 congressional districts.<\/p>\n And even if 2026 is a blue wave, history doesn\u2019t mean that it will crash in Florida. In 2018, when Democrats won races nationwide and flipped the House, the wave didn\u2019t sweep over Florida, and Sen. Bill Nelson<\/b>, the last Democrat to represent Florida in the Senate, lost his bid for reelection.<\/p>\n But Vindman is undeterred. He <\/b>argues Florida is far less red than people have been led to believe.<\/p>\n \u201cEven in 2018, when you had a blue wave that excluded Florida, Trump was above water. He had higher favorability. He\u2019s now underwater,\u201d Vindman told me. \u201cPeople in Florida across the political spectrum … from ruby red to deep blue, are feeling the same pain, that they\u2019re working harder than ever and falling further behind.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n National Democrats are largely unmoved. Burned by massive spending in Florida\u2019s past U.S. Senate elections \u2014 then-Rep. Val Demings <\/b>raised over $80 million only to lose to Rubio by 16 percentage points \u2014 Vindman has not received nearly the level of outside support it would probably take to give Democrats a shot in a state like Florida. Some national Democrats have mentioned Florida as a stretch state this cycle, but it has not received nearly as much attention as states like Iowa and Alaska.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a tough state. We know that,\u201d Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer<\/b> told our colleague Theodoric Meyer <\/b>in late April. But he said home insurance rates are so high in Florida, an upset is possible. \u201cIt\u2019s going to help us in Florida, and that\u2019s why Vindman is not that far behind even though he\u2019s just starting out. So it\u2019s a tougher state, but I wouldn\u2019t rule it out.\u201d<\/p>\n Vindman is an unlikely political candidate. The son of Jewish refugees from the Soviet Union, Vindman was raised in Brooklyn before enlisting as a second lieutenant in the Army. After two decades of service, during which he received a Purple Heart and worked as a national security aide at the White House, he retired<\/a> as a lieutenant colonel after he became nationally known during Trump\u2019s 2019 impeachment proceedings for testifying about his concerns with a phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky<\/b>. His twin brother, Eugene Vindman<\/b>, played a role in Trump\u2019s impeachment and was later elected to Congress from Virginia.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very much a ball and strike caller, regardless of the personal consequences,\u201d Vindman said. \u201cI\u2019m not kind of an ideologue. I will fight for what\u2019s right, damn the consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n One reason Republicans have grown so buoyant about Florida over the past decade, beyond all the winning, is party registration. Democrats lost their registration advantage in 2021, when the state had 5.1 million registered Republicans and 5 million registered Democrats. That current breakdown is even more dire for the left, with 5.6 million registered Republicans and just 4 million registered Democrats.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately for Vindman,\u201d said a Republican operative working on Senate races, \u201cFlorida is a far cry from battleground territory this cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n Vindman argues those numbers ignore another trend in Florida politics: the state\u2019s 3.3 million unaffiliated voters.<\/p>\n People are \u201cfeeling the pain of falling further behind,\u201d and others are \u201cleaving the state because it\u2019s getting too expensive,\u201d Vindman said, giving his campaign a \u201cunique kind of magic\u201d where \u201cyou\u2019re talking to Democrats, independents and Republicans about the same thing.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n I will admit a level of skepticism about Democrats\u2019 chances in Florida. I covered Hillary Clinton<\/b>\u2019s <\/b>campaign for CNN back in 2016 and recall barnstorming the state with the former secretary of state in the weeks between Labor Day and Election Day. Florida, along with Ohio and Pennsylvania, was the state she visited the most during that time. And she lost by less than 2 percentage points. I also covered Florida when the blue wave didn\u2019t crash there in 2018 and for Demings\u2019s much-ballyhooed, yet ultimately failed, race in 2022.<\/p> Read more This national youth sports organization is failing to protect kids from sexual abuse<\/a><\/p>\n Vindman, confronted with that, says this time is different.<\/p>\n \u201cThe media landscape is missing something. They\u2019re living in the past on a world that doesn\u2019t exist anymore where Trump has higher favorability,\u201d Vindman concluded. \u201cIt\u2019s an environment that doesn\u2019t exist anymore.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n Reports of deteriorating conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln are worrying the families of sailors on board, and Senate Democrats are demanding answers from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth<\/b>.<\/p>\n The most troubling reports came this week from the Military Times, which reported<\/a> that at least two sailors have attempted to jump overboard. Earlier reports cited supply shortages, attempted suicides and sewage problems aboard the aircraft carrier that has been deployed since November.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reports from the USS Abraham Lincoln about multiple sailors attempting to jump into the sea are disturbing,\u201d Sen. Mark Kelly <\/b>(D-Arizona) wrote<\/a> Wednesday on X. \u201cLong deployments are hard. They are a lot harder when the mission isn\u2019t well defined and there is no end in sight.\u201d<\/p>\n My colleague Sammy Westfall<\/b> reports that the Defense Department downplayed the conditions on Thursday, with Hegseth telling reporters yesterday that the situation has been \u201ccompletely misrepresented.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe make sure every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them at every single moment,\u201d Hegseth said in Panama, where he is attending a forum. \u201cSome deployments are longer than others, and \u200bI have more respect and gratitude for those sailors than \u200banybody.\u201d<\/p>\n Read the full story <\/b>here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Kentucky Lantern<\/b>: Mercer County Fiscal Court adopted a one-year moratorium on new data center construction this week. One issue? The moratorium doesn\u2019t impact one Mercer County town<\/a> that doesn\u2019t have either a planning or zoning body and is considering a huge data center project. It\u2019s a reminder of how complicated these moratoriums can get.<\/p>\n Nevada Current<\/b>: The states most impacted by the recent federally mandated cuts to water from the Colorado River basin are not giving up the fight<\/a>. \u201cNevada\u2019s top Colorado River negotiator said lower-basin states are still pressing for adjustments and attempting to forge consensus-based alternatives before federally mandated water cuts are finalized,\u201d the outlet reports.<\/p>\n Oregon Capital Chronicle<\/b>: Measles cases in Oregon have set a record<\/a>. The Oregon Health Authority reported this week that the state has had 45 confirmed measles cases, 14 more than in all of 2024. Nationwide, measles cases are currently at their highest annual count since 1991.<\/p>\n Boston.com<\/b>: How to tax vacation communities\u2019 temporary residents<\/a>? It\u2019s a question that communities nationwide are grappling with. And a Cape Cod lawmaker is proposing a tax that would impose an annual surcharge of $2.50 for every $500 on properties assessed at over $1 million.<\/p>\n Your responses capture that the idea of a song of the summer is, well, in the eye of the beholder.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll go first: I\u2019d argue the song of the summer is Ella Langley\u2019s<\/b> \u201cChoosin\u2019 Texas.<\/a>\u201d I have heard it everywhere, including my wife\u2019s Spotify. What I have been listening to all summer, however, is Mumford & Sons\u2019 latest album, \u201cPrizefighter,\u201d and specifically their track \u201cHere<\/a>,\u201d with Chris Stapleton<\/b>.<\/p>\n Joana Ellis<\/b> agreed with me, picking Langley\u2019s catchy hit.<\/p>\n Max Bazzani<\/b> picked \u201cMovin\u2018 to the Sun<\/a>\u201d from HUGEL. I had never heard it before.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s so energetic and catchy. The beat just instinctively makes you want to get up and dance, regardless of the space you\u2019re in,\u201d Bazzani wrote.<\/p>\n And he is right! I may or may not have done a little head bobbing in The Post newsroom.<\/p>\n Douglas W. Corkhill<\/b> shouted out \u201cBackstreets<\/a>,\u201d Bruce Springsteen\u2019s <\/b>epic 1975 hit off \u201cBorn to Run.\u201d The song does open with \u201cOne soft infested summer, me and Terry became friends.\u201d<\/p>\n And Jack Wells<\/b> went way back with \u201cSummertime,\u201d composed by George Gershwin <\/b>for the 1935 opera \u201cPorgy and Bess.\u201d<\/p>\n Our colleagues Steve Thompson, Federica Cocco <\/b>and Christopher Rowland <\/b>reported<\/a> this week that \u201cprescription drug prices recorded the biggest year-over-year drop in more than 60 years in July.\u201d Have you felt that in your personal pocketbook? How much do the costs of prescription drugs worry you? Let your fellow Early Brief readers and me know at earlytips@washpost.com<\/a>.<\/p> Read more Cavalli strikes out 10 as Nationals beat Cubs, 7-0<\/a><\/p>\n