Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody will take Marco Rubio's seat in the US Senate, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Thursday, making Moody only the second woman to represent Florida in the chamber. 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. Before running for statewide office, Moody worked as a federal prosecutor, reports the AP. In 2006, she was elected to the post of circuit judge in Hillsborough County, home to Tampa.
As the state's attorney general, Moody has been instrumental in defending DeSantis' conservative agenda in court and has joined other Republican-led states in challenging the Biden administration's policies, suing over changes to immigration enforcement, student loan forgiveness, and vaccine mandates for federal contractors. Under Florida law, it's up to the Republican governor to pick Rubio's replacement, after President-elect 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 fought unsuccessfully to keep an abortion rights measure off the ballot in Florida in 2024, saying proponents were waging "a war" to protect the procedure. She was also among the state attorneys general to sign onto the lawsuit backed by Trump aimed at overturning Joe Biden's election victory in 2020. Republican state Sen. Joe Gruters, a key Trump ally, was among those who'd pushed for the president-elect's daughter-in-law Lara Trump as the pick for the Senate seat. Still, Gruters praised Moody, calling her "a winner here in Florida."
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Moody's appointment opens up a key vacancy in Florida's Cabinet, giving DeSantis another shot at expanding his influence. DeSantis will also pick a replacement for outgoing Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, who's leaving his post to run for former Rep. Matt Gaetz's open seat in Congress.
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