Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed state Attorney General Ashley Moody to the U.S. Senate, grooming her to fill the seat of Sen. Marco Rubio, whom President-elect Donald Trump named secretary of state.
Rubio was selected to serve in the Trump administration shortly after Trump won the 2024 presidential race, giving DeSantis a Senate appointment that will likely have ripple effects throughout Florida government and politics.
Moody was widely expected to be the pick in recent weeks, while others, including Reps. Kat Cammack and Cory Mills, spoke to DeSantis about the position. DeSantis had publicly said he had reservations about appointing a House member because of the GOP’s slim majority in that chamber.
State Sen. Jay Collins, who served as a Green Beret, also garnered considerable support from conservatives who wanted DeSantis to pick a military veteran.
But the seat will ultimately go to Moody, 49, who easily won his first election in 2018 to become attorney general and his re-election bid in 2022. He was unable to run again because of term limits.
He will have to run in a special election in 2026 to retain the seat for the final two years of Rubio’s term. Mills has already said she will run for the Senate in 2026, as Politico first reported, and Cammack is considering a run, meaning Moody will face Republican rivals in the primary.
Right now, however, her appointment will set a new record for Republican women in the Senate, according to data from the Center for American Women in Politics. When Moody takes the seat, there will be 10 Republican women in the chamber.
Moody is a close ally of DeSantis, who has been his chief legal bulldog in a series of high-profile political fights with the Biden administration.
More recently, Moody’s office, which is technically separate from the governor’s office, filed a lawsuit in October against the Justice Department over what it said was an effort by the federal government to block Florida’s own investigation into the second assassination attempt against Trump, which occurred in September at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach.
“Every day that Florida is prevented from investigating, the State’s case becomes more difficult to prove at trial,” Moody argued in the lawsuit. “In contrast, the federal government suffers no harm from Florida in investigating crimes under state law, as the State has no intention of interfering or obstructing the federal investigation.”
DeSantis has said he believes the federal government had “hindered” Florida’s ability to conduct its own investigation.
Moody said the state’s independent investigation was necessary, in part, because the Justice Department should not have been investigating an attempted assassination of Trump while also trying to prosecute him. Since Trump’s election victory in November, former special counsel Jack Smith, who was leading federal cases against Trump over whether he tried to overturn the 2020 election and over his alleged mishandling of classified documents, resigned and those cases against Trump ended.
In December, Moody also released an arrest affidavit for Ryan Routh, the alleged gunmen behind the second assassination attempt. He said a traffic jam that resulted from the search for Routh caused an accident that injured a 6-year-old girl. Routh is in federal custody and faces five charges related to the attempted murder.
Earlier this year, the state attorney general also sued the Biden administration to try to block a rule that Moody said would have forced doctors to provide gender transition care against their discretion. Transgender issues have been one of the main culture wars DeSantis has focused on as governor.
DeSantis had not publicly indicated who he would choose to fill Rubio’s seat, but has said the person will be a hardliner on immigration issues, including promoting reforms to the so-called H-1B visa program, which has come under fire. of intense internal debates. post-election fights among Trump’s own supporters.
Trump supporters, such as billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk, have said the program offers lower-cost international talent for many companies, while the populist wing of the MAGA movement, led by people like conservative pundits Steve Bannon and Laura Loomer, They have said the program should be abolished.
Trump said in late December that he thinks the program is “excellent.”
Moody’s election is also likely to reshuffle DeSantis’ own political orbit.
It is widely believed that DeSantis’ former chief of staff, James Uthmeier, will now be appointed to fill Moody’s position, requiring DeSantis to select a new senior staff member. Uthmeier served as campaign manager for DeSantis’ failed 2024 presidential bid and is considered one of his closest confidants.
