Alexander Vindman’s Senate primary loss Tuesday is the latest stumble from a top Trump critic.
08/20/2026 04:45 AM EDT
During President Donald Trump’s first term, they were resistance stars. During his second term, they couldn’t survive primaries.
Alexander Vindman’s Senate primary loss in Florida on Tuesday is the latest stumble for Democrats who rose to prominence during the impeachment trials and accountability protests of Trump’s first term. Vindman, a former National Security Council aide who testified during the 2019 House impeachment inquiry, made standing up to Trump and other forms of corruption a centerpiece of his campaign.
His national profile helped haul in big money, but that wasn’t enough to stave off an upset loss to democratic socialist Angie Nixon, whose win showed the shifting politics of the Democratic base.
“Vindman is a hero, but memories fade and the focus of most folks is on the cost of living,” said longtime Democratic strategist David Axelrod. “She made those issues her focus.”
Democratic voters clearly want fighters who will stand up to the president and the GOP. But the string of losses for resistance candidates from the first Trump term illustrates a new era for the restive Democratic base, where vocal opposition to the president through official channels and public remonstrations no longer guarantees success.
The political graveyard of Trump-resistance-fighter campaigns is growing by the week.
Two of the 2021 House impeachment managers, Reps. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), are among them: DeGette lost her reelection bid to a democratic socialist this summer, while Swalwell dropped out of the California gubernatorial primary after a string of sexual assault allegations. Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), the lead majority counsel in the first Trump impeachment inquiry, was ousted in his primary. Harry Dunn, a Capitol Police officer honored for his heroics on Jan. 6, 2021, lost a House bid in Maryland — his second unsuccessful run.
Other Democrats who built their profiles on Trump resistance flopped as well.
Tom Steyer, a prominent financier of the Trump resistance movement, failed to advance in the California gubernatorial primary. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), a member of the Oversight and Intelligence committees during the 2021 impeachment, fell short in his Senate bid. Reps. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) and Al Green (D-Texas), both of whom led impeachment pushes against Trump, were ousted by younger challengers. And George Conway, a longtime Trump critic and Lincoln Project co-founder, won just six percent of the vote in a House primary in New York City.
“‘#Resistance’ was a very Trump 1.0 mood, and now we are in a different moment of anger,” said Lanae Erickson, senior vice president at center-left think tank Third Way. “They’re mad about the war. They’re mad about costs. They’re mad about the establishment not having delivered anything for them.”
Not all the races were defined by Trump accountability politics. Swalwell dropped his bid after multiple sexual assault allegations, several incumbents lost to DSA challengers in closed primaries, and in Goldman’s case, the debate over Israel was a major factor.
A Democratic operative who worked on one of the resistance races, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said the throughline is that those candidates are “institutionalists” who argued the justice system was going to hold Trump accountable. But voters have lost faith in those institutions after he returned to office, and were sold by other candidates’ messaging that relied more on railing against those very systems.
“The prescription isn’t what they were looking for anymore,” the operative said.
If Democrats retake control of the House, they will have to confront their base’s appetite for holding Trump accountable. Republicans have long warned that Democrats will immediately move to impeach Trump should they regain a House majority in 2027. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) — the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee — hasn’t ruled out impeachment.
But some Democrats are more careful. “There are certain sections of people that definitely want Democrats to prioritize impeachment of the president. There are also other segments of people that want Democrats to prioritize bringing down the cost of living,” said Rep. Julie Johnson (D-Texas), who lost a runoff in a newly gerrymandered district. “You can’t just focus on one thing at the exclusion of the other.”
These electoral results, along with a growing list of Trump-endorsed candidates who have lost their primaries, suggest Americans are ready to move past Trump, argued Mike Madrid, who co-founded (and later disaffiliated with) the anti-Trump GOP group Lincoln Project.
“People are just tired of him, broadly. They don’t want to deal with him and the fights and the exhaustion and the never-Trump model, but also the sycophantic MAGA support model either,” Madrid said, pointing to the string of Trump-endorsed candidates who lost primaries on Tuesday, from Florida to Wyoming. “It’s Trump fatigue.’”
Some candidates are taking note — and adjusting accordingly.
David Jolly, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee in Florida and a former GOP House member, left the Republican Party in 2018 over disagreements with Trump. He was an independent after that and a regular MSNBC talking-head criticizing the president. He registered as a Democrat more than a year ago, before launching his bid for governor.
Despite Trump’s role in his political evolution, Jolly hasn’t made Trump central to his race for governor. “I’m not running the race about Trump. I rarely talk about him. But I am going to tie Byron to Trump’s economy,” Jolly told POLITICO after winning the nomination on Tuesday night, referring to his Trump-endorsed opponent, GOP Rep. Byron Donalds.
Former Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.), who served on the House Jan. 6th Committee, is running for her old seat against Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.). She said in a statement that she was “proud of the work I did in Congress to hold Donald Trump and his Administration accountable,” but quickly pivoted into an attack focused more on pocketbook issues.
Some of the candidates who lost primaries say their resistance bona fides did help — just not enough.
Dunn, the Capitol Police officer, earned the Presidential Citizens Medal from former President Joe Biden for his heroism on Jan. 6, 2021 and became well-known for his outspokenness about that day. He said that had little to do with his primary loss — although he acknowledged that Democratic voters’ top priority this cycle has shifted to affordability concerns.
“While name recognition got me to be a formidable challenger, it didn’t put me across the finish line,” said Dunn, who finished third in a crowded primary in Maryland’s 5th District. “I just think it’s too nuanced to just drill it down to ‘people just don’t care anymore.’” The Democratic nominee, Adrian Boafo, is “strongly about holding Donald Trump accountable,” Dunn added.
Goldman, similarly, lost to former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who often highlighted how he put his “body on the line” to push back against the administration’s immigration policies.
Steyer, the billionaire who ran for California governor, lost to Xavier Becerra — who campaigned hard on his court fights with the Trump administration as California’s attorney general, but also leaned into unrelated sections of his resume like his time as Biden’s health secretary.
Months before entering the race, Steyer reminded voters of the Need to Impeach campaign he once funded in an ad supporting last year’s Democratic gerrymander in California. But those credentials — which he later stressed on the campaign trail — were too dated and too intangible to push him over the top, according to his former campaign spokesperson Kevin Liao.
“Tom Steyer led an impeachment movement almost 10 years ago now, and I think it’s hard to expect the electorate to hold that long of a memory on anything that happened almost a decade ago,” he said.
Adam Wren, Kimberly Leonard, Riley Rogerson, Blake Jones and Madison Fernandez contributed reporting.
Facts Only
Alexander Vindman lost his Senate primary in Florida on Tuesday.
Vindman is a former National Security Council aide who testified during the 2019 House impeachment inquiry.
He lost to democratic socialist Angie Nixon in the primary.
David Axelrod stated that voters are focusing on the cost of living rather than accountability.
Rep. Diana DeGette and Rep. Eric Swalwell are among those who lost reelection or dropped out of primaries related to Trump resistance themes.
Rep. Dan Goldman, lead majority counsel in the first impeachment inquiry, was ousted in his primary.
Harry Dunn, a Capitol Police officer, lost a House bid in Maryland.
Tom Steyer failed to advance in the California gubernatorial primary.
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi fell short in his Senate bid.
Reps. Shri Thanedar and Al Green were ousted by younger challengers.
George Conway won six percent of the vote in a House primary in New York City.
Executive Summary
Alexander Vindman’s Senate primary loss in Florida was the latest setback for candidates who built their profiles on opposition to Donald Trump during his first term. Vindman, a former National Security Council aide who testified in the 2019 impeachment inquiry, lost to democratic socialist Angie Nixon, whose victory reflected shifting politics within the Democratic base. Longtime strategist David Axelrod noted that voter focus has shifted from accountability to cost of living. The pattern of losses among Trump-resistance candidates suggests that vocal opposition through official channels and public protest is no longer a guaranteed path to electoral success for this segment of the party.
The string of primary losses involves several figures who were prominent in Trump resistance efforts, including House impeachment managers and other critics. This trend indicates a realignment where dissatisfaction with the established political system has not automatically translated into electoral gains for those positions, as evidenced by multiple candidates losing their bids to challengers from different ideological or thematic bases.
Full Take
The narrative presented involves a shift in the efficacy of performance-based political organizing, specifically concerning opposition to the Trump administration. The pattern observed is that visibility and demonstrated resistance—like testifying during impeachment inquiries or leading activist movements—no longer equate to electoral viability when juxtaposed against other salient voter concerns, such as economic costs. This suggests a move away from identity politics centered solely on external opposition toward issue-based voting patterns that prioritize immediate material concerns over institutional accountability championed by the resistance movement.
The underlying implication is that historical political postures, built around specific fault lines of protest, lose their predictive power when the electorate pivots based on immediate lived experience and evolving moral priorities. The fatigue noted in the text suggests a saturation point where sustained oppositional framing becomes less potent than concerns about tangible economic reality. This pattern invites inquiry into whether resistance movements need to adapt their focus from institutional accountability to immediate material conditions to maintain relevance within the broader political landscape.
Bridge questions: If the electorate prioritizes cost of living, how must resistance narratives be reframed to address fiscal policy effectively? Does the loss of primary races signal a necessary evolution in the strategy for organizing opposition when institutional trust is low? What specific mechanisms exist for integrating accountability demands with economic concerns in future electoral campaigns?
Sentinel — Human
The text reads like standard, fact-based political analysis that synthesizes various narrative threads concerning shifting Democratic voter priorities amidst political fatigue.