Ashley Moody, the state’s attorney general, will soon move from the Florida Cabinet to the U.S. Senate.
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday announced Moody as his pick to replace U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, who is poised to be the next Secretary of State for President-elect Donald J. Trump. The governor made the announcement in a Thursday news conference in Orlando.
DeSantis said he wanted someone who would take a hardline on illegal immigration enforcement, combat the fentanyl crisis and support conservative judges and justices.
“She’s never been a squish on any of these issues,” DeSantis said of Moody’s immigration record. “She’ll go up there and she’ll be part of the enforcement caucus, not the amnesty caucus, and that’s what we need.”
Moody has been a loyal ally of DeSantis in office, consistently backing his efforts to crack down on illegal immigration and suing over many of President Joe Biden’s initiatives on issues such as immigration, transgender discrimination and student loan forgiveness.
“I will not let you down, I will not let the citizens of Florida down and I will not let my country down,” Moody said after DeSantis made the announcement. “I will bring the same persistence and passion and tenacity as a United States Senator that I have brought as Attorney General.”
More: Who is Ashley Moody, DeSantis’ pick to replace Marco Rubio in US Senate?
DeSantis indicated he’ll name his chief of staff, James Uthmeier, as the replacement for Moody, but will wait until Moody actually takes office in Washington. He anticipates that move will happen Monday afternoon, or soon after Rubio is confirmed by the Senate.
The moves are the latest in a carousel of seat-hopping among Florida Republicans as Trump leaned heavily on Sunshine State hires to staff his incoming administration.
Moody, 49, who in 2019 became the second woman to be Florida Attorney General when she succeeded Pam Bondi, also will be the second woman to represent Florida in the U.S. Senate. Paula Hawkins, a Republican, served one term, from 1981 to 1987, but lost her reelection bid to Democrat Bob Graham.
A former federal prosecutor and state circuit court judge, Moody has roots in the Florida legal firmament. She graduated from University of Florida School of Law in 2001. Her father, James Moody Jr., is a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida who was nominated by former President Bill Clinton.
After graduating from law school, Moody joined the Holland & Knight firm before running and winning a judgeship on the 13th Circuit Court based in Hillsborough in 2006. Her brother, James Moody III, was appointed as a judge to the same court by DeSantis in 2022.
In 2018 she resigned to run for Attorney General, defeating former state Rep. Frank White, a Pensacola Republican, in the primary and another former state representative, Democrat Sean Shaw of Tampa, in the general election.
Attorney General Ashley Moody arrives to the Supreme Court for arguments on the 15-week abortion ban in Florida on Friday, Sept. 8, 2023.
Moody has been a staunch ally of Trump, backing his legal challenges to the certification of election results in a handful of states in 2020 when he lost the election to Biden, for instance. The challenges were rejected by the courts.
That record suggests she’ll be a reliable vote for Trump’s agenda in the Senate, taking a hardline on immigration enforcement – one of DeSantis’ requirements in a Senate appointee.
When presented with the upcoming Senate vacancy shortly after the election in November, DeSantis posted on X:
“Florida deserves a Senator who will help President Trump deliver on his election mandate, be strong on immigration and border security, take on the entrenched bureaucracy and administrative state, reverse the nation’s fiscal decline, be animated by conservative principles, and has a proven record of results.”
Gray Rohrer is a reporter with the USA TODAY Network-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X: @GrayRohrer.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Ashley Moody: DeSantis picks Florida AG to replace Rubio in US Senate
