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| I smell a 2028 potential GOP presidential. Ron DeSantis picks Ashley Moody to replace Marco Rubio. |
Florida governor Ron DeSantis selects Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody as the U.S. Senator to replace former senator now Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Moody (R-FL) and Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) were sworn in by Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday.
A Israel-backed, far right supporting DeSantis stooge, the 49 year old who was the state's attorney general. A senator who has a potential to become the "rock star" in MAGAland come 2028.
Moody has spent her career in the justice system, working as a federal prosecutor before being elected at age 31 to the post of circuit judge in Hillsborough County, home to Tampa. She ran for the statewide office of attorney general in 2018, the same year DeSantis won his first bid as governor.
Moody comes from a well-known Tampa Bay family and followed in the footsteps of her father, U.S. District Judge James Moody.
Serving in the Florida Cabinet, Moody has repeatedly advocated for law enforcement. Her husband, Justin Duralia, became a deputy police chief in Plant City in July. Previously, he worked at the Drug Enforcement Administration for 24 years, most recently as a supervisory special agent. Together, they have two sons, Brandon and Connor.
She has a record of coming to Trump’s defense.
Moody has earned a reputation as a defender of the president, notably when she joined 16 other Republican state attorneys general in signing on to a lawsuit asking the Supreme Court to overturn former president Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.
“The integrity and resolution of the 2020 election is of paramount importance,” Moody wrote in a statement at the time.
In December, Moody’s office obtained an arrest warrant for Ryan Wesley Routh, whom federal authorities accuse of trying to assassinate Trump at his West Palm Beach country club in September.
Moody is pursuing criminal charges of attempted felony murder against Routh for a crash that seriously injured a 6-year-old girl after officials shut down traffic on Interstate 95 as they tried to apprehend the suspect.
Moody is poised to become just the second woman to represent the state in the U.S. Senate, and the first in nearly 40 years; Republican Paula Hawkins served in the chamber from 1981-1987.
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| Sen. Ashley Moody (R-FL) and Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL). |
In her first statements after DeSantis announced her appointment Thursday, Moody said her experiences as a woman would shape her work in the Senate.
“First and foremost, I am driven by the fact that I am a mother — and I still have a kid in school,” Moody said.
To date, 63 women have served in the Senate, with 25 currently in office.
Moody’s office unsuccessfully fought to disqualify two measures from appearing on the 2024 ballot: one that would have expanded abortion rights and another that would have legalized recreational marijuana in the state.
Moody accused supporters of the abortion proposal of waging a “war” to protect the procedure. And she argued that the marijuana measure’s language — that it “allows adults 21 years or older to possess, purchase, or use marijuana products” — was misleading because it didn’t clarify that marijuana possession is illegal under federal law.
In April 2024, the Florida Supreme Court rejected Moody’s arguments and allowed the marijuana and abortion measures to go before voters. While a majority of Floridians voted to pass the initiatives, both failed to meet the state’s required 60% threshold to amend the constitution.
Moody, who is a fifth generation Florida native from Plant City, was named the queen of the Florida Strawberry Festival in 1993. Plant City has hosted the famed celebration of the state’s strawberry industry for nearly a century.
Moody can claim another kind of Florida pedigree as well: She’s a triple Gator, earning a bachelor’s, a master’s and a Juris Doctor from the University of Florida.
Moody and Husted will have to defend their seats in a special election. They will strongly hold their seats.
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