DeSantis picks Florida AG Ashley Moody to replace Rubio in Senate

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has tapped the state’s Republican attorney general, Ashley Moody, to replace Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) in the Senate following his nomination to serve as President-elect Trump’s secretary of State. 

DeSantis said during an announcement with Moody in Orlando that he expects her to be swiftly confirmed and that she will “mostly likely” be sworn in Monday afternoon, following President-elect Trump’s inauguration.

“I’m happy to say we’ve had an attorney general who has been somebody that has acted time and time again to support the values we all share,” the governor said, citing Moody’s work on opioids, immigration, leading Florida’s investigation into the second Trump assassination and pushback to federal investigations into Trump.

Moody touted her support of Trump in her remarks following DeSantis’s announcement,

“I will bring the same persistence, passion and tenacity that I have brought as attorney general as a United States senator,” she said.

Florida’s soon-to-be senior Sen. Rick Scott (R) said in a post on X that he has “no doubt she will do an incredible job as senator,” while National Republican Senatorial Campaign Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) praised Moody as a “proven conservative fighter for President Trump’s agenda.”

Moody emerged as a front-runner for the position in recent weeks. A number of other names were floated for the position, including Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez (R) and the governor’s chief of staff, James Uthmeier. DeSantis also said he had spoken with Reps. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) and Cory Mills (R-Fla.) about the post but raised doubts about elevating a House lawmaker given the razor-thin GOP margin in the chamber. 

It’s unclear whether Moody will run for the seat again in 2026, but Mills has said “you can probably guarantee my hat is going to be thrown in the ring for 2026.”

Moody was elected to serve as the state’s attorney general in 2018. She succeeded Pam Bondi, who is Trump’s nominee to lead the Justice Department. Prior to her tenure as the state’s top law enforcement officer, Moody served as judge of Florida’s state-level 13th Judicial Circuit Court. 

She stands to be a staunch ally of the president-elect in the Senate. In 2020, Moody supported Trump by backing the Texas v. Pennsylvania lawsuit that aimed to overturn his loss in the presidential election that year. And last month, she charged Ryan Wesley Routh, the man accused of attempting to assassinate Trump at one of his Florida golf courses, with attempted felony murder.

Moody has not always been a vocal Trump supporter; she accused the president-elect of fraud related to a real estate deal in a 2009 federal lawsuit. However, after backing Trump, she said in 2017 that the matter had no bearing on her support for him.

“This matter had absolutely no bearing on my family’s support of our President during the election, and I continue to support him and his agenda in Washington,” Moody said in a statement to Politico at the time. 

Updated at 11:15 a.m. EST