Ron DeSantis Announces Replacement for Marco Rubio's Senate Seat
One day after one of Florida’s most famous attorney generals was in the headlines for her performance on Capitol Hill, another Florida attorney general is making waves of her own.
Less than 24 hours after former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi stood her ground against furious Democrats, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has announced the Sunshine State’s current attorney general, Ashley Moody, has been nominated to fill outgoing Sen. Marco Rubio’s seat.
(Rubio had to vacate his Senate seat to accept President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination for Secretary of State.)
The Florida governor made the announcement in Orlando early Thursday:
Governor Ron DeSantis Makes an Announcement in Orlando https://t.co/7dNbFdoiau
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) January 16, 2025
NBC News reported that it “has widely been expected in recent weeks that Moody would be the pick.”
Interestingly, NBC noted that DeSantis specifically didn’t want to pull any candidates from the House, “because of the GOP’s slim majority in that chamber.”
According to her site’s own biography, Moody is “a fifth generation Floridian” who “was born and raised in Plant City, Florida.”
The political careers for both Moody and DeSantis have been somewhat linked over the years.
Both were elected to their respective offices in 2019, and both have worked hand-in-hand to make Florida one of the most desirable states in the U.S.
“She has stood strong time and time again,” DeSantis at the news conference, per The Washington Post.
The Florida governor also characterized Moody as a staunch supporter of Trump’s agenda, a true conservative, and a fighter.
And that fighting spirit may be more important than ever before, given the partisan outbursts that have characterized a number of the Trump nominee confirmation hearings.
While Rubio’s confirmation hearing has, ironically, but rather ho-hum, the same cannot be said about the confirmation hearings of Bondi (Trump’s pick for attorney general) and Pete Hegseth (Trump’s pick for Secretary of Defense).
The hearings for Bondi and Hegseth largely devolved along party lines this week, with the two receiving more normalized questioning from their GOP counterparts and much more from Democrats.
Moody obviously won’t face a similar firing squad, given how Senate appointments work. (Moody will be up for a special election in 2026 to maintain the final two years of Rubio’s seat eligibility.)
One last, ironic note if you care at all about identity politics: NBC noted that DeSantis’ nomination of Moody will put a record 10 GOP women in the Senate.
Moody, 49, is married to a federal law enforcement agent, and they have two sons.
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