Ron DeSantis Announces FL AG Ashley Moody as Senate Replacement for Marco Rubio

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Thursday announced the Senate replacement for Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL): Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody (R).

Rubio is slated to join President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet as Secretary of State, and for weeks speculation has abounded on who the Florida governor will select to replace him. DeSantis told radio host Erick Erickson on Wednesday that the announcement was “going to be imminent” — prior to Inauguration Day, and on Thursday, he made good on that promise, announcing Moody as that person– someone he said has a “demonstrated record of delivering results” on “important issues.”

“Talk is cheap. We need people that have demonstrated fidelity to these principles with their actions. So that is why today, I’m proud to announce that I am selecting our Attorney General Ashley [Moody to] serve as our next U.S. senator.”

Before making the formal announcement, DeSantis said “appointments like these are more significant than ever.”

“This is a time for action and a time for Washington, DC to deliver results to the American people. There are no more excuses for Republicans. We can’t choose the easy path here. We must be able to do what it takes make the hard decisions necessary to usher in a revival of the American experiment,” he continued, concluding that there was a clear mandate for change.

“What was more noteworthy is no candidate has ever had to endure a flurry of bogus prosecutions and two assassination attempts and having the entire legacy media apparatus, doing everything they can to prevent his return to Office. So we, as Republicans, cannot squander this opportunity, and that means we need a Congress — both the House and the Senate — that will rise to the occasion and make history no more business as usual in Washington, DC,” he continued, pointing to the “economic crunch” and immigration crisis as main motivators for voters.

Republicans, he continued, also have a “mandate” to “reconstitutionalize this federal government” and fight against the woke agenda.

DeSantis laid out the criteria he had for Rubio’s replacement, which included someone who would work with Trump to “deliver on the mandate he was he earned from the American people”:

I want a senator that’s going to be willing to lean in against the excessive spending and cut spending and stop the inflation. I want somebody that understands that the federal bureaucracy is run amok, and it must be held to account, and we need three branches of government, not for branches of government. And we need somebody that understands the fight against illegal immigration is willing to shut the border. And importantly, make sure any legal immigration of this country is putting Americans first.

He listed more of Moody’s qualifications as well:

She’s been a national leader in fighting the Biden administration on many different fronts, including on immigration. She’s not only filed more than a dozen separate lawsuits, but she’s actually won against Biden with his reckless border policies, she’s demanded appropriately, the impeachment of Alexander Mayorkas and the designation of Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. In her role as AG, she has stood strong for law and order. She believes in putting criminals in jail, not releasing them back onto the street. … She does not support soft on crime, leftist prosecutors. In fact, we have removed, prosecutors here in the state of Florida, and she has stood with us every step of the way and we have won those lawsuits.

DeSantis also highlighted her stance against DEI and standing up for Americans during the coronavirus pandemic.

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The announcement comes nearly a month after Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who also served as co-chair of the Republican National Committee, formally withdrew her name from consideration to serve in the United States Senate in the Sunshine State.