MIAMI — Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody will take Marco Rubio’s U.S. Senate seat, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Thursday, making her the second woman to represent the Sunshine State in the congressional chamber.
Under Florida law, it’s up to the governor to pick a U.S. Senate seat replacement after Rubio was tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to be his next secretary of state. Moody will serve as senator until the next general election in 2026 when the seat returns to the ballot.
On Thursday, DeSantis praised Moody as a key player in his political battles, a “law and order” prosecutor who is prepared to help Trump “secure and shut the border,” hinder inflation and overhaul what the Florida governor described as a federal bureaucracy that has “run amok.”
“I’m ready to show up and fight for this nation and fight for [President-elect] Trump to deliver his America First agenda on day one,” Moody said.
“The only way to return this country to the people, the people who govern it, is to make sure we have a strong Congress doing its job, passing laws and actually approving the regulations that these unelected bureaucrats are trying to cram down on the American people,” Moody added.
Here’s everything you need to know about Moody and why her appointment is significant:
Florida through and through
Moody, 49, is a fifth-generation Floridian who was born and raised in Plant City, a suburb of Tampa. She is also a three-time graduate of the University of Florida, earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting and law, along with her Juris Doctor.
She also earned a master’s in international law from the College of Law at Stetson University. In her youth, Moody was named “queen” of her hometown’s Florida Strawberry Festival in 1993.
Moody and her husband, Justin Duralia, the deputy chief of the Plant City Police Department, share two sons.
Career in Florida law and the courts system
Moody began her career with the law firm Holland & Knight, where she practiced commercial litigation.
In her spare time, she volunteered to assist domestic violence victims seeking protection in court, according to her biography on the Florida attorney general’s website.
She then went on to join the U.S. Attorney General’s Office in the Middle District of Florida, the federal court in the 11th Circuit, where she prosecuted drug, firearm and fraud offenses. During her time as a federal prosecutor, Moody was commended by federal agencies for her “prosecutorial excellence” and initiative in drug law enforcement, DeSantis said.
She was also recognized by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for leading “Operation Round-Up,” a targeted prosecution of violent and repeat offenders.
At the age of 31, Moody became the youngest judge in Florida history when she was elected as Circuit Court judge of the Thirteenth Judicial District in Hillsborough County.
During her time as judge, she founded the Attorney Ad Litem program, recruiting volunteer attorneys to stand in the place of parents who did not appear in court with their children. Moody also developed a mentoring program for at-risk children within the juvenile delinquency system.
From prosecutor to politician
Moody was elected Florida attorney general in 2018, defeating state Rep. Sean Shaw and succeeding Pam Bondi, who is now going through confirmation hearings as Trump’s nominee for U.S. attorney general. During her campaign, Moody pledged to voters that she would be a prosecutor and not a politician.
As the state’s attorney general, Moody was instrumental in defending DeSantis’ conservative agenda in court, joining and leading other Republican states’ challenges to policies enacted by the Biden administration.
Along with DeSantis, Moody boosted her political profile during the COVID-19 pandemic, calling on the U.S. to “hold China accountable” for the outbreak. She has also sued the Biden administration over several issues, including changes to immigration law enforcement, student loan forgiveness and employer COVID-19 vaccination mandates.
“I’m happy to say we’ve had an attorney general that is somebody that has acted time and time again to support the values that we all share,” DeSantis said. “We in Florida established our state as a beachhead of liberty, as the free state of Florida. And she was with us every step of the way.”
Moody was also among the state attorneys general to sign on to the lawsuit backed by Trump that was aimed at overturning Joe Biden’s election victory in 2020.
In the past year, Moody has filed lawsuits and joined lawsuits to take on the “weaponization of law enforcement” that targeted Trump, taking on special counsel Jack Smith and the New York Attorney General’s Office with their cases against the then-former president.
DeSantis said Moody also played an “integral part” in Florida’s efforts to defend the state from China and its influence, particularly in the controversy surrounding a law that prevented people “domiciled” in China from purchasing Florida land, state pension investments in Chinese companies and alleged Chinese espionage through social media.
Moody also led Florida’s investigation into the second assassination attempt on Trump in Palm Beach County in September of 2024.
During the 2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season, Moody fought against FEMA after reports came out that an agency director allegedly told agents to deny aiding and helping Trump supporters who were impacted by Hurricane Milton in Central Florida.
Moody also fought unsuccessfully to keep Amendment 4 — Florida’s abortion access measure — off the 2024 ballot, saying proponents were waging “a war” to protect the procedure. The amendment did go before voters in November but failed to obtain the 60% approval needed to pass.
Moody’s appointment to the U.S. Senate opens up a vacancy in Florida’s Cabinet, giving DeSantis another shot at expanding his influence in the state.
