OAN Staff James Meyers
10:40 AM – Thursday, January 16, 2025
Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis announced on Thursday that state Attorney General Ashley Moody will be replacing Senator Marco Rubio in the Senate after being nominated to serve as President-elect Donald Trump’s secretary of state.
DeSantis (R-Fla.) made the announcement at a news conference in Orlando just days before Rubio (R-Fla.) is set to step into his new position in Trump’s administration.
The governor explained that he wanted to choose a senator who will undoubtedly support Trump’s immigration reform policies and one that would be sure to “cut spending.”
“Talk is cheap. We need people that have demonstrated fidelity to these principles with their actions,” DeSantis said of Moody, who has been Florida’s top law enforcement officer since 2019.
“I’m happy to say we’ve had an attorney general who has been somebody that has acted time and time again to support the values that we all share,” he added, “whether that’s illegal immigration, [the] opioid and fentanyl crisis, human trafficking. She has stood strong time and time again, most recently in this past year, filing lawsuits and joining lawsuits to take on the weaponization of law enforcement that targeted then-candidate Donald Trump.”
DeSantis highlighted how Moody led the investigation into Trump’s second assassination attempt, challenging President Joe Biden’s border policies and fighting back against special counsel Jack Smith over his lawfare efforts targeting Trump.
Additionally, the governor noted that he purposely did not want to decide any sooner, as he didn’t want critics to make his preferred choice a “piñata,” coming after them for months before Rubio is sworn in.
Moody will have to go through a special election in November 2026 to complete the remainder of Rubio’s term. If she does so happen to choose that route, she will be up for election to a full six-year term in 2028.
In separate remarks, Moody stated that she will “fight for President Trump to deliver the America First agenda on day one,” working to save money by shrinking federal agencies and cutting funding from the United Nations.
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