NEW: DeSantis Picks Moody to Fill Rubio Senate Seat

Alternate headline: Florida Invades Washington DC With Attorneys General.

More seriously, Ron DeSantis proves his serious nature with this choice. Ashley Moody will make a solid choice to fill Marco Rubio’s seat, both substantively and politically. She will take office just in time to confirm her Florida AG predecessor Pam Bondi:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed state Attorney General Ashley Moody to the U.S. Senate, setting her up to fill the seat of Sen. Marco Rubio, whom President-elect Donald Trump tapped to be secretary of state. …

It has widely been expected in recent weeks that Moody would be the pick, while others, including Reps. Kat Cammack and Cory Mills, did talk to DeSantis about the position. DeSantis had said publicly he had reservations about appointing a member of the House because of the GOP’s slim majority in that chamber. … 

Right now, though, her appointment will set a new record for Republican women in the Senate, according to data from the Center for American Women in Politics. When Moody takes the seat, there will be 10 GOP women in the chamber.

That is a wise choice by DeSantis for lots of reasons other than diversity, likely one that Donald Trump watched closely as well. The House GOP caucus is already fraught with risks over its narrow majority, and filling a vacancy would take at least a few months. And there are no guarantee of getting a Republican elected as a replacement in either district under these circumstances. Cammack’s FL-03 has an R+9 Cook index rating, while Mills’ FL-07 has only an R+5. In special elections, those become a higher risk.

Besides, those aren’t the only elections that matter, and may not matter most either. Moody won’t have to defend the seat until 2026. Florida does not require a special election outside of the established cycles for Senate replacements, although a handful of states do. At that time, Moody will have to run for the last two years of Rubio’s term and then run again in 2028, assuming she wins the first election. Moody may have competition for the nomination, NBC News notes:

She will have to run in a 2026 special election to keep the seat for the final two years of Rubio’s term. Mills has already said he is running for Senate in 2026, as first reported by Politico, and Cammack is mulling a run, meaning Moody is going to face Republican primary challengers.

I’d bet that the competition never develops. Moody has already won two state-wide elections for AG in Florida, neither of them close. She beat Sean Shaw in 2018 by six points (52/46) in a rough cycle for Republicans, when DeSantis won his first term by less than a single point. Four years later, Moody rode DeSantis’ landslide coattails to a 21-point win over Aramis Ayala (60/39). None of the other candidates have that kind of proven record in statewide elections, and that matters in this case more than it might otherwise, given the disadvantage the GOP will have in Senate races in the midterms.

Given that proven electoral record in statewide contests, Republicans will likely swarm to her side in both 2026 and 2028 to hold the seat, and encourage other Florida Republicans to look elsewhere for office. Moody’s presence in the Senate would likely mean that the gubernatorial nomination is now up for grabs, as Moody probably would have dominated that race if she so chose.

And of course, having Moody in the Senate gives Republicans a new and accomplished face to replace Rubio, who had distinguished himself as a conservative statesman. DeSantis laid out her qualifications in a fun presser this morning, introducing Moody to cheers in the room:

BREAKING: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has announced that he is replacing Marco Rubio in the Senate with the state’s attorney general, Ashley Moody.

“She has stood strong, time and time again,” DeSantis said. https://t.co/AfrzYKD3yN pic.twitter.com/9fxVivt7S6

— ABC News (@ABC) January 16, 2025

Florida will now have two Attorneys General in Washington DC. The bureaucratic state should take note, and …

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