Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has tapped the state’s Republican attorney general, Ashley Moody, to replace Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in the Senate following his nomination to serve as President-elect Trump’s secretary of State. 

Moody emerged as a front-runner for the position in recent weeks. A number of other names were floated for the position, including Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez and the governor’s chief of staff, James Uthmeier. DeSantis also said he had spoken with Reps. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., and Cory Mills, R-Fla., about the post but raised doubts about plucking a lawmaker from the House given the razor-thin GOP margin in the chamber. 

It’s unclear whether Moody will run for the seat again in 2026, but Mills has said “you can probably guarantee my hat is going to be thrown in the ring for 2026.”

Moody was elected to serve as the state’s attorney general in 2018. She succeeded former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is Trump’s nominee to lead the Justice Department. Prior to her tenure as the state’s top law enforcement officer, Moody served as judge of Florida’s 13th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida. 

The state attorney general stands to be a staunch ally of the president-elect in the Senate. In 2020, she supported Trump by backing the Texas v. Pennsylvania lawsuit that aimed to overturn his loss in the presidential election that year. And last month, she charged Ryan Wesley Routh, the man accused of attempting to assassinate Trump at one of his Florida golf courses, with attempted felony murder.

Moody has not always been a vocal Trump supporter. She accused the president-elect of fraud related to a real estate deal in a 2009 federal lawsuit. However, after backing Trump, she said in 2017 that the matter had no bearing on her support for him.

“This matter had absolutely no bearing on my family’s support of our President during the election, and I continue to support him and his agenda in Washington,” Moody said in a statement to Politico at the time. 

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