Analysts called Gov. Ron DeSantis’ pick of AG Ashley Moody as a senator replacement “not a controversial pick.” NBC6’s Hatzel Vela reports
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody will take Marco Rubio's seat in the U.S. Senate, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Thursday, making Moody only the second woman to represent Florida in the chamber.
DeSantis spoke on Thursday about his criteria for filling that Senate seat, which will be up for election in 2026: the importance of "making illegal immigration illegal once again," responding to the "economic crunch" and "crushing inflation," and fighting against "the woke agenda."
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WATCH HEREIn her acceptance speech, Moody praised DeSantis' leadership and said she was honored by the nomination.
"I will bring the same persistence, and passion and tenacity as a United States senator that I have brought as Florida's attorney general," she said.
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Elected as the state’s top law enforcement officer in 2018, Moody campaigned on a pledge to voters that she’d be a prosecutor, not a politician. Along with DeSantis, Moody boosted her political profile during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, calling on the federal government to “hold China responsible” for the outbreak.
In elevating her to the post, DeSantis praised Moody as a key player in his political battles, a law and order prosecutor who’s prepared to help President-elect Donald Trump “secure and shut the border,” rein in inflation, and overhaul what he described as a federal bureaucracy “run amok.”
Under Florida law, it’s up to the Republican governor to pick Rubio’s replacement, after Trump picked the three-term senator to be his next secretary of state. Moody will serve in the Senate until the next general election in 2026, when the seat will be back on the ballot.
Moody joked that DeSantis had previously told her he didn't know "why anybody would want that job," given the deadlock often experienced in Washington.
"I don't know if you can tell, but I'm pretty energetic. I like to get things done," she said. "I thought, if every person with the same energy, the same love, the respect for our founding principles, the ideals on which this country was built on--if every person like that with that personality said, 'I don't think I'd like serving in Congress,' then we'd never change that culture."
"And so, you're probably right. I probably won't like it. But I'm ready to show up and fight for this nation and fight for President Trump to deliver the American-first agenda on day one," she continued.
Before running for statewide office, Moody worked as a federal prosecutor. In 2006, she was elected to the post of circuit judge in Hillsborough County, home to Tampa. A fifth generation native of Plant City, Florida, Moody was once named queen of the city’s famed strawberry festival. She’s a three-time graduate of the University of Florida and she and her husband, a law enforcement officer, have two sons.
She highlighted her personal and professional commitments to law enforcement, members of the military, fighting the fentanyl crisis and using her experience as an accountant to "[shrinking] the bloat of the federal government."
"I also served over a decade in the judiciary, I have now served in the executive branch, I may be the only United States senator that is now on my third branch of government, and bringing all of that with me to the role," she said. "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."
Moody is expected to take office on Jan. 20.
