ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 Candidate qualifying for the U.S. Senate race is over in Florida and the field is set for the Democratic and Republican primaries in August. <\/p>\n
On the Republican side, U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody faces three challengers as she launches her campaign for a full term in office: Chris Gleason, Neelam Perry and Ernest Rivera. The former Florida attorney general was appointed to fill Marco Rubio\u2019s term when he left the Senate to become secretary of state.<\/p>\n
You can find the candidate\u2019s campaign sites below:<\/p>\n
On the Democratic side, Col. Alex Vindman and State Rep. Angie Nixon of Jacksonville will face each other in the August primary. <\/p>\n
You can find the candidate\u2019s campaign websites below:<\/p>\n
Vindman\u2019s first statewide tour brought him to Orlando Friday.<\/p>\n
Vindman is a political newcomer, but not a stranger to politics. The former national security official testified against President Donald Trump during his first impeachment trial, after reporting that the president had asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate the Biden family. <\/p>\n
An immigrant whose family fled the Soviet Union in the 70s, Vindman served in the Army and rose through the ranks. After retiring, he came to Florida, calling the state the first home he had chosen for himself. He says affordability issues compelled him to run for political office.<\/p>\n
News 6 sat down with Vindman to talk about how he would approach affordability if elected to the Senate. We also talked about immigration policy, health care in the U.S., and more.<\/p>\n
You can watch the full interview in the player above, and read the interview below. Stay with News 6 throughout election season. We hope to interview all of the candidates about the issues that matter to you.<\/p>\n
NEWS 6: You\u2019re a foreign policy guy. That\u2019s what you\u2019re known for. So, how do you tell Floridians that you can help them on affordability?<\/p>\n
ALEX VINDMAN: I\u2018m a soldier. Twenty-four years in the military, served this country overseas in the national security and defense roles. It\u2019s, in a lot of ways, this is a simple continuation of my public service. This as a elected officeholder representing 23 million Floridians, except the folks that are struggling with regards to making ends meet, simply come here with this promise of a beautiful place. Warm communities, good people. And now they\u2019re being crushed by costs. And it\u2019s not. It\u2019s these things don\u2019t just come out of nowhere. It\u2019s the fact that the system seems increasingly fixed, increasingly unfair, benefiting the ultra wealthy, benefiting the corporations, some of that delivered through the handmaidens of the career politicians, rather than folks that are fighting for individuals. And I think to me, what\u2019s clear is people don\u2019t want that. They want somebody that they know will be a fighter in their corner that will be able to deliver on 24 things that are forefront of mind, like cost solutions to homeowners\u2019 insurance crisis, solutions to skyrocketing costs. A lot of that driven by tariffs and so forth. <\/p>\n
NEWS 6: We\u2019re talking about Florida, I mean, yes, the rest of the country has affordability issues, but you\u2019re talking about going to the federal office. So what can the Senate do to address these affordability issues?<\/p>\n
VINDMAN: One of the biggest things is that the Senate needs to fundamentally do its job. We have politicians on both sides, Democrat and Republican, that have given up their responsibilities as a co-equal branch of government, ceded their authorities, and they have a clear role. The Senate is supposed to, and the House, are supposed to confirm laws. They\u2019re supposed to make sure that when there\u2019s an overreach \u2014 one of the major cost drivers is everything has gone up because of tariffs, because the Senate and the House would do their job, if Ashley Moody were to do her job, she would make sure that she is fighting for ordinary people instead of being an automatic yes vote for this entire agenda that\u2019s driving up costs and is inherently corrupt. <\/p>\n
So the big thing is getting control over the power of the purse, over tariff policies, and then looking at solutions around \u2014 insurance, would be a big one. Health care. Another huge one. It\u2019s gone up under Ashley Moody. She voted to cut Affordable Care Act subsidies and pass those costs on to ordinary people. She voted to cut Medicaid and those passed on to ordinary people. She voted for the billionaire class tax cuts instead of ordinary people.<\/p>\n
NEWS 6: Speaking about health care and affordability, what specific health care policies would you support if you got into the Senate and there was a Senate majority for the Democrats, do you support universal health, do you support \u2014 obviously, you support Affordable Care Act subsidies, what else?<\/p>\n
VINDMAN: We are the richest country in the world. We should be expanding health care access, not shrinking it. That\u2019s exactly what\u2019s happened under Ashley Moody\u2019s tenure. She has been happy to slash the basic things that folks need. I was in Marion County. I was talking to a woman that was struggling with the fact that Affordable Care Act subsidies were cut, and she has to make a decision between whether she provides health care for herself or her daughter, 11-year old-daughter. I can tell you, when I was 11 years old, I had a broken arm. My twin brother had a broken leg. You can\u2019t skimp on that. And then trading that off versus putting fuel in the car or taking public service, public transportation, which isn\u2019t all that great in the state to get to work. So there are lots of problems to fix, but reversing the kind of catastrophic, catastrophic decisions that have been crushing health care and then expanding health care is a basic necessity here. <\/p>\n
NEWS 6: But this is Florida, I mean, people come to Florida, you came to Florida, you know \u2014 Ashley Moody called you a carpetbagger \u2014 so many people come to Florida. Didn\u2019t you come to Florida for affordability, aren\u2019t we more affordable than New York?<\/p>\n
VINDMAN: So this is exactly it. The promise of Florida is not the reality for Florida under Ashley Moody. While she\u2019s taking, while she\u2019s engaging in stock trading to the tune of millions, taking money from Big Pharma while she\u2019s giving passes to the big insurance companies that are driving up costs. Things have gotten a lot more expensive. My dad, he moved down sick about six months after me. He\u2019s 94, and my mom, 79 this year, and she\u2019s paying half the rent in order to be able to survive and enjoy their retirement years in Florida. So the direction that the state has taken under Ashley Moody\u2019s tenure, I think it\u2019s driven, driving that crisis. <\/p>\n
I think about my own specific situation that I see reflected in a lot of other Floridians. My daughter is 15, she\u2019s a ninth grader, and she goes off to the university. The question is, does she choose to stay here? Do we have the jobs for her to keep her here? Does she have, you know, the promise of a bright future, which is a promise that we make to Floridians when they come here, or the one, the ones that grow up here, that they have someplace with jobs and affordable housing. You know, she\u2019s going to be looking to rent \u2014 37% of rent, monthly income, goes towards rent \u2014 37%.<\/p>\n
NEWS 6: But again, are those issues that can be solved at the federal level? <\/p>\n
VINDMAN: Of course, we can.<\/p>\n
NEWS 6: How?<\/p>\n
VINDMAN: One of the basic things that we need to do is, if we think about the fact that Florida is the fourth wealthiest state in the union, our tax, our federal tax dollars will get spread across the entire 50 states. We spread the wealth. We should figure out ways to spread the risk and make sure that we brace the insurance companies, large insurance companies, so they stay here, that we have a functioning market, a competitive market that allows prices to stay reasonable. Part of the story is that we\u2019ve had a flight of big insurance companies. <\/p>\n
NEWS 6: You just mentioned billionaires, but what are you going to \u2014 what do you want to do? <\/p>\n
VINDMAN: What I would like for the billionaires to do. Well, I welcome them all, but they need to pay their fair share of taxes. We can\u2019t have a situation in which the burdens are being borne by working people, and I\u2019d like to love for them to come here and spend their money here. But I\u2019d love it even more if they come here and they bring business. They bring in the industries of the 21st century here to Florida, not fleeing here for tax shelters; they buy their homes here. I want their headquarters here to provide 21st-century jobs for the people of Florida, so that our young people can have high-tech jobs, biomedical jobs, all those great things. But we need to make investments in education. We need to make investments in affordability, housing affordability, health care, to make sure the whole package, the whole environment, is ripe for folks to stay here.<\/p>\n
NEWS 6: So aside from insurance, how else would you handle housing affordability at the federal level?<\/p>\n
VINDMAN: So we talked about the tariffs that are crushing people. We talked about health care, that we need to reverse course on Affordable Care Act subsidies and Medicaid cuts, and the fact that we need to expand health care access. We talked about insurance, making sure that we have a functioning insurance market that we can brace and share the wealth, we should share the risk. Those are concrete, major activities that the federal government can be involved in.<\/p>\n
NEWS 6: Do you think the federal government should be dealing with, say, businesses that are buying up rental properties? Or should they be meddling in the real estate market at all?<\/p>\n
VINDMAN: You know, one of the things I would be looking for is partners in the state of Florida, you know, these are issues that are crushing Floridians, the folks that have come here, as well as the folks that were born here that are being priced out. So I\u2019m looking for solutions regardless of parties that will help deliver affordable housing, expanded services, more jobs, fruitful environment for small business. I\u2019m looking for all comers. This is not ideological. This is very practical to deliver for the people in Florida.<\/p>\n
NEWS 6: Speaking of looking for solutions, today you\u2019re at a Hispanic roundtable. While polls show Hispanics tend to have buyer\u2019s remorse with this administration, we know in Florida, they tend to support policies in this administration. How are you going to convince them that they should vote for a Democrat instead? <\/p>\n
VINDMAN: I think what they\u2019re voting for is an independent-minded veteran that has served his country throughout my career, somebody that is not ideologically driven, that is more oriented on being a fighter for ordinary people. I think that\u2019s the case that I\u2019m making. The other part of this is that, I mean, the environment that we\u2019re looking at today, the electoral environment today, is one ripe for a change of direction. People completely believe that the state and the country are heading in the wrong direction, and they\u2019re looking for change. Candidates, folks that are going to change course, especially in the Hispanic community, make sure that we don\u2019t have federal authorities putting what amount to paramilitaries into the city to abuse the population. So I think that the message I take to defend communities, you have somebody that\u2019s going to look out for your interests, not ideologically driven, but to all Floridians, it\u2019s about costs. It\u2019s about corruption. Pick your fighter. <\/p>\n
NEWS 6: You say you\u2019re an independent-minded fighter? Where would you break with Democrats in the Senate on issues? What issues do you think Democrats may spend too much time on?<\/p>\n
VINDMAN: For me, anything that\u2019s not focused on corruption, anything that\u2019s not focused on cost, becomes less relevant. Now, you won\u2019t catch me in a situation where I\u2019m going to equivocate about individual rights and liberties. But what I\u2019m working on is accountability, corruption and costs.<\/p>\n
NEWS 6: This is kind of foreign policy-related, but our current border policy, our current immigration policy \u2014 do you think it\u2019s good for our standing in the world, as a country?<\/p>\n
VINDMAN: I think that the policy under this administration has been cruel. At the same time, as a national security veteran, I am very, very much focused on making sure that we have good, tight control of our borders and understand who is coming into this country, that\u2019s a basic sovereign responsibility. What\u2019s going on under this administration? Separating families, mass detentions, that\u2019s unacceptable. But we need to make sure we have good control of our borders.<\/p>\n
NEWS 6: So what would that look like in your mind?<\/p>\n
VINDMAN: Making sure that we are applying technological tools to make sure that we can track those in borders, make sure that the border security is pretty firm. We\u2019ve made some strides in regards of technological monitoring of the borders. But frankly, also for me, it\u2019s quite important as a refugee and an immigrant to this country, my family came here in 1979 when I was three years old, that we get a hold of our immigration policy and execute immigration reform that allows the best and brightest that still continue in this country, that figures out a path to account for millions of folks in this country, a reasonable path to legal status. <\/p>\n
NEWS 6: OK, final question, where do you stand on statehood for Puerto Rico?<\/p>\n
VINDMAN: I think I\u2019m fundamentally a believer in the fact that members of our society should have a voice. So I\u2019m all for giving rights, votes, I mean, Puerto Ricans are American citizens. Why wouldn\u2019t we go ahead and pursue statehood for Puerto Rico? In every context you will see me side with giving folks in a functioning democracy, giving folks a voice in the how the system, how the government is run. I think that is a strong advocate for Puerto Rico and statehood. And finally, making sure that we make it as easy as possible for legal votes to be cast, no infringements on legal voting. And that\u2019s the trend lines that we\u2019ve seen from state and federal government to infringe and make it hard for people. That\u2019s wrong.<\/p>\n
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