Umair
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida on Thursday named Ashley Moody, the Republican state attorney general, to replace Marco Rubio in the U.S. Senate, elevating a close ally to Mr. Rubio’s seat after he is confirmed as President-elect Donald J. Trump’s secretary of state.
“I wanted somebody with a demonstrated record of delivering results,” Mr. DeSantis said in Orlando before announcing Ms. Moody as Mr. Rubio’s successor. The announcement came one day after Mr. Rubio’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee went smoothly. He is expected to win confirmation easily in a vote of the full Senate.
Ms. Moody, like Mr. DeSantis, was elected to statewide office in 2018 and re-elected in 2022. She had been seen as a front-runner for Mr. Rubio’s seat, appearing by Mr. DeSantis’s side at recent public events in which she and the governor endorsed the incoming Trump administration’s hard line on immigration.
Ms. Moody, 49, is a fifth-generation Floridian. Before being elected attorney general, she was a circuit court judge in Hillsborough County, home to Tampa. She had previously worked as a federal prosecutor. Ms. Moody and her husband, a law enforcement officer, have two sons.
Though several Florida members of Congress were interested in replacing Mr. Rubio, Mr. DeSantis made clear earlier this week that he was not inclined to select any of them, for fear of leaving House Republicans with too narrow a majority in that chamber.
After Mr. Trump tapped Mr. Rubio as his secretary of state pick in November, Republicans floated Lara Trump, the incoming president’s daughter-in-law who had served as Republican National Committee chairwoman, for the Florida Senate seat. But Mr. DeSantis did not warm to the idea, and Ms. Trump withdrew from consideration last month.
Ms. Moody would serve in the Senate until an election is held in 2026. Mr. DeSantis will also be term-limited that year. Ms. Moody had been seen as one of numerous Florida Republicans potentially interested in running for governor.
