(The Center Square) – Ashley Moody, attorney general of Florida, is the appointment to the U.S. Senate taking the place of Sen. Marco Rubio, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday.
Rubio was chosen by President-elect Donald Trump to serve as secretary of state. Moody’s replacement wasn’t immediately announced from the state’s deep bench of Republican options.
“I’m ready to show up and fight for this nation and fight for President Trump to deliver the America First agenda on Day 1,” Moody said at the news conference in Orlando. “I will bring the the same persistence and tenacity as a United States senator that I have brought as Florida’s attorney general. America First, let’s get it done.”
DeSantis said he called Moody with the appointment on Wednesday evening and told the attorney general to “clear her calendar.” She is likely to take office on Monday.
Rubio’s confirmation hearing was Wednesday. First elected in the 2010 midterms, he was in his third six-year term.
Moody followed Pam Bondi, Trump’s pick for U.S. attorney general, to her current post. She first won election in 2018 and was reelected in 2022.
“We did a lot of research, we got a number of great candidates throughout the state of Florida and many of them, I think, could have done a good job,” DeSantis said. “But the final criteria I used was because you can say all those things and say you stand for it, I wanted somebody with a demonstrated record of delivering results on those important issues.
“We need people that have demonstrated fidelity to these principles with their actions. She’s never been a squish on any of these issues.”
Moody, formerly a federal assistant attorney, is a fifth-generation Floridian from Plant City and the youngest circuit judge in Hillsborough County history. She has been a key ally for DeSantis.
During her time in the attorney general’s office, she sued the administration of President Joe Biden over immigration issues, pandemic-related vaccine regulations and the prosecution of Trump by Special Counsel Jack Smith.
“She does not support soft-on-crime leftist prosecutors,” DeSantis said. “She has fought against overreaching federal agencies like the ATF, the EPA and the FDA to protect the rights of law-abiding Americans and to prevent bureaucratic entities from encroaching on our God-given freedoms.”