JUST IN: Ron DeSantis Taps Florida AG Ashley Moody to Fill Rubio’s Senate Seat

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced at a press conference Thursday that he was appointing Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody to fill Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) Senate seat, which he is vacating to serve as President-elect Donald Trump’s Secretary of State.

Trump announced Rubio as his pick to head the State Department in mid-November, and Florida’s senior senator is expected to sail through his confirmation process, being generally viewed as well-liked among his Senate colleagues and far less controversial than some of Trump’s other nominees.

As governor, DeSantis has the power to appoint a replacement for Rubio’s seat until a special election is held in 2026. Earlier in the process, there were reports that Trump was pressuring DeSantis to pick his daughter-in-law and former Republican National Committee chair, Lara Trump, but she withdrew her name in December.

After serving in the Florida House, including a term as Speaker, Rubio was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010, and then re-elected in 2016 and 2022. He ran for president in 2016 but lost to Trump in the primary.

A native of Plant City, Florida, Moody earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in accounting from the University of Florida, a master of laws in international law from Stetson University, and then her law degree from the University of Florida College of Law. After several years in private practice, she was appointed as an assistant U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, and then elected to the bench for the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit of Florida in Hillsborough County.

In 2018, Moody resigned from the bench to run for Florida’s Attorney General, won, and was re-elected in 2022.

DeSantis will now be able to appoint someone to replace Moody as attorney general. Axios White House reporter Marc Caputo reported Thursday that the governor is likely to pick James Uthmeier, his chief of staff, with a source telling him that “it was always Ashley” whom DeSantis intended to pick for the Senate seat, “and James is the obvious pick to replace her.”

Like the Senate seat, the person DeSantis appoints as attorney general will also have to run for re-election in 2026.

Watch the clip above via Fox News.

This is a breaking news story and has been updated.