TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Ron DeSantis chose Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody to be the state’s next senator, serving out the next two years of Sen. Marco Rubio’s term.
In an Orlando news conference, DeSantis said Moody had “a demonstrated record of delivering results” on immigration and fighting President Joe Biden’s administration.
“Ashley Moody as attorney general never had any blemish on immigration,” DeSantis said. “She’ll go up there and she’ll be part of the enforcement caucus, not the amnesty caucus.”
Rubio was nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to serve as secretary of state, leaving the choice of his replacement to DeSantis. Moody will serve until 2026, when the seat is up for election.
DeSantis said he would appoint his chief of staff and former presidential campaign manager, James Uthmeier, to replace Moody.
“He’s proven himself in these fights,” he said. “I think he’s got big shoes to fill, but I think he’ll do a good job doing that. So you can anticipate that.”
Although there were calls for DeSantis to choose Lara Trump to replace Rubio, Moody’s name has circulated for months as his likely choice. Lara Trump, who previously served as co-chairperson of the Republican National Committee, said last month that she removed herself from consideration.
Moody thanked DeSantis for the appointment and vowed to “fight for President Trump.”
“I will not let you down,” Moody told DeSantis. “I will not let the citizens of Florida down, and I will not let my country down.”
Florida Democratic Party chairperson Nikki Fried, who was friends with Moody when they attended the University of Florida, called her DeSantis’ “lapdog.”
“As attorney general, Ashley ignored the growing property insurance crisis and let wealthy corporations rip off Floridians,” Fried said in a statement. “Instead, she spent her time chasing political attention and currying favor with the far right.”
Since being elected attorney general in 2018, Moody, 49, has been a staunch supporter of DeSantis’ agenda, he said Thursday.
“She was with us every step of the way,” he said.
Defending laws passed by the Legislature and the governor is the attorney general’s job, but Moody took it a step further, repeatedly inserting her office into debates over gender care, federal immigration enforcement and the pandemic. Since 2023, she has sued President Joe Biden’s administration at least nine times, including to stop a federal rule requiring background checks at gun shows and to stop accrediting agencies from having influence over colleges and universities.
Some of those lawsuits were successful, such as in 2021, when Moody and DeSantis successfully stopped federal pandemic safety rules for cruise companies operating in Florida. In 2023, Moody’s office was also able to temporarily block the federal government’s ability to release some migrants into the country as they await legal proceedings.
Other cases were criticized as publicity stunts. Last month, Moody obtained an arrest warrant against the man accused of trying to assassinate Trump, in defiance of federal prosecutors who had already charged him with an attempted assassination.
In 2020, she asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up Texas’ attempt to overturn the presidential election results. One of her lawyers called the legal reasoning “bats–t insane.”
Moody saw her public profile rise along with the number of appearances on Fox News and other right-wing outlets.
Moody was a prosecutor who became the youngest judge in Florida when she was elected to the Hillsborough circuit bench in 2006. Her father is a federal judge and her mother has long worked for Bay Area Legal Services.
Republican opponents accused her of being a “liberal” during the 2018 Republican primary. Democrats accused her of being a copy of her predecessor and friend, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was a frequent guest on Fox. (Moody sent a news release from her office last month urging senators to confirm Bondi as U.S. attorney general.)
After being elected, Moody pledged to keep politics out of the Attorney General’s Office, and she vowed to be a strong consumer advocate, one of the primary roles assumed by attorneys general. Early in her term, she fought with Republicans in the Legislature for data that would make it easier to sue opioid manufacturers.
Consumer advocates had high expectations, but aside from pursuing opioid manufacturers and distributors, Moody has taken a light touch to corporations.
“She hasn’t done anything,” said Lynn Drysdale, senior trial attorney for Jacksonville Area Legal Aid and a longtime consumer advocate.
Drysdale said Moody’s office has talented lawyers, but its leaders haven’t done anything to protect Floridians from predatory home loans or reverse mortgages. Reverse mortgages led to a surge in foreclosure filings, including on a 92-year-old Jacksonville woman who owed 27 cents.
Moody also didn’t join other state attorneys general in suing RealPage, a software company accused of fixing and inflating rents across the country.
Bondi, on the other hand, was a much fiercer consumer advocate, Drysdale said.
“The comparison is like night and day,” she said.
DeSantis said he had also considered as Rubio’s replacement U.S. Reps. Kat Cammack, R-Gainesville, and Cory Mills, R-New Smyrna Beach, as well as Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd and state Sen. Jay Collins, R-Tampa.
DeSantis said Moody’s performance won out.
“She’s never let us down once,” he said. “That matters to me.”
Times/Herald staff writer Ana Ceballos contributed to this report.
Lawrence Mower is a Tallahassee correspondent, covering politics and the state capitol. Reach him at lmower@tampabay.com.
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