Ron DeSantis Picks Florida Attorney General to Fill Marco Rubio’s Senate Seat | Florida

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has announced that he is appointing Ashley Moody, the state’s attorney general, to fill Marco Rubio’s Senate seat. Rubio is Donald Trump’s choice for Secretary of State.

Moody has been Florida’s attorney general since 2019, after replacing Pam Bondi, Trump’s pick for US attorney general. Rubio had been in the Senate since 2011 as part of the Tea Party wave during the 2010 election.

Over the past five years, Moody has championed DeSantis’ conservative agenda, including successfully halting federal pandemic regulations in 2021, blocking the federal government from releasing migrants into the state and halting a federal rule on background checks at gun shows. She has sued the Biden administration nine times since 2023, according to Miami Herald.

At a news conference Thursday, Moody promised to rein in “out-of-control federal agencies” and to cut spending.

“I’m ready to show up and fight for this nation and fight for President Trump to deliver on the ‘America first’ agenda on day one,” Moody said during Thursday’s announcement at an Orlando hotel.

DeSantis said Thursday that Moody had a “demonstrated record of delivering results.”

“I’m happy to say that we’ve had an attorney general who is someone who has acted time and time again to support the values ​​that we all share,” DeSantis said.

Although Moody was at the top of the list of whom DeSantis would nominate to fill Rubio’s seat, Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law and former chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, was also reportedly in the running until she publicly dropped out of consideration.

“The only person Donald Trump wanted to see (in the seat) was probably me,” Lara told Trump Daily Mailand explained his reaction when she told him.

Moody will serve until the seat is up for re-election in 2026. She is likely to face challengers in the primary, including U.S. Rep. Cory Mills, a Republican who recently said he will run for the seat in 2026.

DeSantis has the power to appoint a new person to fill the vacant role of Florida attorney general. A top contender is James Uthmeier, DeSantis’ current chief of staff, according to Axios.

When Trump takes office, Republicans control both houses of Congress by a small margin. Republicans hold 53 seats out of 100 in the Senate, with Vice President JD Vance as a tiebreaker if necessary, and 200 seats out of 435 in the House of Representatives.