Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Jan. 16 announced that Ashley Moody, Florida’s attorney general, will replace Sen. Marco Rubio in the U.S. Senate, praising her as someone who will deliver results in step with the incoming administration’s America-first agenda.
Rubio is expected to resign from his seat upon receiving Senate approval to become the next U.S. Secretary of State, and DeSantis said Moody will quickly fill the vacant seat.
Joining DeSantis for the announcement, Moody accepted the appointment and promised to bring “the same persistence and passion and tenacity” to her role as a senator that she brought to her role as attorney general.
“You better believe, as a United States Senator, I will work for you, those that stand on that thin line between chaos and order, between safety and crime,” Moody said. “I have got your back … and we will all work to protect the American people and make all of our cities and states stronger and safer together.
“And so I have one message right now to President Trump and to my new colleagues on the United States Senate: America first, let’s get it done.”
DeSantis praised Moody for the work she’s done in the past six years as Florida’s attorney general, stating, “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 that we all share.”
He summarized her track record, touting her tough-on-crime stance and her work fighting against issues such as illegal immigration, the opioid and fentanyl crisis, anti-Semitism, influence and land ownership by communist China, and federal government overreach by agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
He praised Moody for taking legal action against the Federal Emergency Management Agency for alleged discrimination, urging the Supreme Court to remove illegal immigrants from voter rolls before the last election, speaking out against the now-failed state Amendments 3 and 4, and fighting to ban transgender surgeries for minors.
Moody said that what angered her most as a state attorney general was the past four years of having to fight against federal government overreach.
She promised to work to give power back to the American people.
“The only way to return this country to the people, the people who govern it, is to make sure we have a strong Congress doing its job passing laws and actually approving the regulations that these unelected bureaucrats are trying to cram down on the American people,” she said.
She pointed out that she has already served in the judiciary and executive branches of government, and joked that she might be the only senator to serve in a third branch.
She also stressed that she is a trained accountant and could “shrink the bloat of the federal government.”
DeSantis said he won’t appoint Moody’s replacement as Florida’s attorney general before the position is available, but he expects to appoint his Chief of Staff James Uthmeier.
“James Uthmeier is kind of like Ashley,” he said. “He’s proven himself in these fights.”
DeSantis added that he thinks Moody is leaving “big shoes to fill,” but that Uthmeier would do a good job.
Rubio has not yet submitted his resignation, although DeSantis anticipates that Moody will likely take office on Jan. 20.
“I want to thank Senator Rubio for his service in the United States Senate,” DeSantis said. “I think he will serve the country ably as Secretary of State, and we need it, because the last four years has been a total disaster.”
Florida’s other senator, Rick Scott, celebrated Moody’s appointment on social media platform X, welcoming her to the Senate.
DeSantis said that he notified Moody the night before the announcement. He praised the array of choices he had to choose from at both state and federal levels.
He specifically called out Florida Representatives Cory Mills and Kat Cammack, as well as Florida’s Secretary of State Cord Byrd, and State Senator Jay Collins.
Byrd and Collins both congratulated Moody on X shortly after the announcement, and expressed their gratitude to the governor for considering them.
DeSantis also said he “got a kick out of” speculation that he would appoint himself, but said that it was better to “hold the fort down” in Florida, saying that his team can be very helpful to President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda.
“I think we can play a good supporting role when senators like Ashley Moody are fighting for us, and we can be there in support for some of those policies to bring power back to the states,” he said.
