Democratic U.S. Senate Candidate Alex Vindman held a press conference outside the Florida capitol Thursday blasting Republican U.S. Senator Ashley Moody.
Vindman’s presser was about recent reporting from CBS News about Moody’s role in the Hope Florida scandal. He’s calling on Moody to release the grand jury report from the scandal.
That scandal involved the diversion of $10 million dollars from a state Medicaid settlement to go to the Hope Florida Foundation. That money was then given to political action committees that were used to defeat the recreational marijauana ballot initiative in 2024.
The CBS News story pointed out that while Moody was state Attorney General at the time, she approved the deal and didn’t place safeguards or guardrails needed to keep the money from going to those political committees.
At his press conference, Vindman criticized Moody.
“The Florida Hope scandal is just the latest in a pattern: exploiting constituents for her own personal gain. Moody may be worse, especially in the context of a political campaign, when elect when the electorate deserves to know what is going on, so they could make informed choices. She's refusing to answer questions about either stock trading or around this Hope scandal,” he said.
While Vindman, the whistleblower in the first Trump impeachment, is challenging Moody, he must first win the Democratic Primary. He’s facing off against several other candidates, including State Representative Angie Nixon. She’s a progressive running at a time where progressive candidates have gained ground in other states.
During the press conference, Vindman said Democrats that can be successful in Florida are different than in states like New York.
“We are unique in the fact that we have Democrats, Independents, or NPAs and Republicans-a huge swath, millions of NPAs. So, I think it's far less ideologically driven. Folks are much, much more focused on pragmatic and practical candidates and folks that could deliver some real relief, and folks with a strong track record,” he said. “I think that you know those don't carry over very well from really tight or urban cores like New York. This is a massive state of 23 million Floridians.”
The primaries are on August 18th.
