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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis holds a news conference at a fuel depot in Plant City, Fla., Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024, accompanied by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, right. Gas station are slow to open after the effects of Hurricane Milton. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
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DeSantis said to lean toward replacing Rubio with Florida attorney general

ASSOCIATED PRESS

DeSantis said to lean toward replacing Rubio with Florida attorney general

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been leaning toward replacing Sen. Marco Rubio with state Attorney General Ashley Moody, according to people familiar with the matter, a move that could also pave the way for Mr. DeSantis’ chief of staff to become Florida’s top law enforcement officer.

Mr. DeSantis has not made a decision, according to a senior Florida government official and two other people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. One of the people said that Ms. Moody has also been eyeing the governor’s office, that Mr. DeSantis has encouraged her and that other possible picks include former Florida House speaker Jose Oliva.

But Ms. Moody is considered the favorite for the Senate in GOP circles as Mr. DeSantis’ need to choose approaches. Mr. Rubio is President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of state, and Mr. DeSantis expects to name a replacement this month. “We’ll have somebody teed up ready to go when the new administration begins,” he said last week at a news conference with Trump and other Republican governors.

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Tapping Ms. Moody would create another vacancy for Mr. DeSantis to fill: Florida attorney general. James Uthmeier, Mr. DeSantis’ chief of staff and former presidential campaign manager, would be a top candidate. One of the people with knowledge of the deliberations said Mr. DeSantis has been leaning toward Ms. Moody for Senate and Mr/ Uthmeier for attorney general.

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Mr. DeSantis’ office declined to comment, and a spokesperson for Ms. Moody did not respond. The senior Florida official said “anyone claiming to have inside information is doing nothing more than speculating.”

Asked last week if he would run his selection by Trump, Mr. DeSantis said he has told the president-elect, “You’re gonna have somebody up there that’s gonna help you deliver on a mandate that you’ve received from the American people.” He also said the pick has to have strong principles and “understand the state of Florida.”

Mr. DeSantis’ appointee would serve until an election in 2026, when the governor’s race will also take place. Mr. DeSantis is blocked by term limits from running for a third consecutive term.

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The president-elect and his allies had advocated for Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, who co-chaired the Republican National Committee this past election cycle but has not held public office. But Mr. DeSantis continued to consider other candidates, and the president-elect eventually said publicly last month that he did not expect Mr. DeSantis to pick Lara Trump, who soon announced that she was removing her name from consideration.

Picking Ms. Moody and Mr. Uthmeier would elevate two close DeSantis allies.

A lawyer by training, Mr. Uthmeier worked for Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in the first Trump administration and served as general counsel and then chief of staff for Mr. DeSantis. He served as a law clerk in Mr. Rubio’s office from 2012 to 2014. The Florida governor has shown immense trust in his top aide, tapping Mr. Uthmeier, who had little experience in campaigns, to audit and then manage his 2024 presidential operation after the effort struggled to gain traction.

Ms. Moody, 49, was elected to the attorney general’s office in 2018, the same year Mr. DSantis won the governor’s mansion. She has been a vocal defender of Mr. DeSantis’ policies and actions ever since.

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Ms. Moody’s office sued to keep an amendment that would protect the right to abortion off the ballot in November and defended the state’s use of taxpayer dollars to advertise against the measure. The amendment failed.

Ms. Moody also supported Mr. DeSantis’ decisions to use state funds to fly undocumented immigrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard in 2022, and to California in 2023.

In 2020, she backed a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to block the election results after President Joe Biden defeated Trump.

Ms. Moody also joined in legal briefs to support a lawsuit that would have derailed the Affordable Care Act. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the lawsuit in 2021. Florida has the highest number of residents enrolled in Obamacare.

Ms. Moody is a fifth-generation Floridian and has followed in the footsteps of her father, James S. Moody Jr., who was a Hillsborough County circuit judge until he was appointed to the federal bench by President Bill Clinton.

Mr. DeSantis appointed Ms. Moody’s brother, James S. Moody III, to two judgeships: Hillsborough County court in 2019, and to the county circuit court job in 2022.

Ms. Moody’s late grandfather, James S. Moody Sr., was also a Hillsborough circuit judge.

Ms. Moody and other family members were among those who sued Trump over a failed Trump Tower Tampa project in 2004; the case was settled in 2011.

Last week, Ms. Moody was in Tampa with Mr. DeSantis and Pam Bondi, whom Trump has tapped to be the U.S. attorney general, at the investiture ceremony for Hillsborough State Attorney Suzy Lopez.

Ms. Bondi was Florida’s attorney general from 2011 to 2019.

First Published: January 13, 2025, 10:11 p.m.
Updated: January 14, 2025, 2:45 a.m.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis holds a news conference at a fuel depot in Plant City, Fla., Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024, accompanied by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, right. Gas station are slow to open after the effects of Hurricane Milton. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)  (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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