DeSantis Signals He’s Unlikely to Take Rubio’s Replacement From Congress

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a press conference regarding an apparent assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump, in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Sept. 17, 2024. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has yet to appoint a replacement for Sen. Marco Rubio—pending Senate approval of Rubio’s nomination as secretary of state—and it seems unlikely that the appointee will be chosen from the House of Representatives.

Speculation over that appointee has continued to swirl, with names like Rep. Cory Mills being thrown in the air. The governor confirmed he spoke to Mills about the vacancy, but he appeared to signal in a Jan. 13 press conference that he was unlikely to appoint any current congresspersons considering the slim Republican majority in the House.

Mills responded to the governor’s comments on social media platform X, stating that while he feels like he would be better positioned and more valuable to the America First agenda in the Senate, he is honored just to be considered. He deferred to the governor’s decision and expressed gratitude for the feedback.

“I respect @GovRonDeSantis and how he’s run our state and been very strategic in his decision making processes,” Mills said. “I understand the Governor’s concerns regarding the U.S. House slim majority.”

While Republicans earned 220 seats in the House of Representatives in the 2024 election to the Democrats’ 215 seats, DeSantis pointed out that the real party split at the start of President-elect Donald Trump’s term will be 217–215, with Senate approval.

Appointing one of Florida’s remaining representatives to the higher chamber would shrink that margin even more.

“I’ve been honest with the Congress, congresspeople; that’s a big concern of mine because one of the criteria I had with who I’m going to appoint is, we just had an election. [The] president has a mandate. I want you to help facilitate that. I don’t want you to be sanding the gears,” DeSantis said.

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz already vacated his seat after reelection amid an unsuccessful bid to become the next attorney general. Trump nominated Rep. Mike Waltz to become his national security adviser.

With the drop in numbers comes the cost of time. Due to the parameters of Florida’s special elections, Gaetz’s and Waltz’s House seats won’t be filled until after April 1.

“If they wanted to do it quicker, what they need to do is maybe just have one election with no primaries,” DeSantis said. “Because when you do the primary, you got 45 days for that; 45 days for the general, just for military absentees overseas. That’s not even counting qualifying all these other things.”

The qualifying deadlines for both these special House elections have already passed, and while Trump has already endorsed his choice for both districts, several other eager Republicans are still planning to take their shot in a primary.

If another congressperson were to announce their resignation, a separate special election process would start for their district once DeSantis receives the resignation notice and is able to order Florida’s state secretary to conduct it. This would further delay the filling of all 220 seats.

“It’s not a neat thing that any of these guys have any control over,” DeSantis said. “It’s not their fault, but that’s just the reality that we’re dealing with.

“I don’t want to do anything to inhibit getting the agenda accomplished.”

The governor said he has a list of very credible candidates. An appointee will be chosen to immediately fill Rubio’s vacancy, which is expected to occur on Jan. 20, or Jan. 21 at the latest.