Gov. Ron DeSantis and Attorney General Ashley Moody in Orlando on Jan. 16, 2024. (Screenshot DeSantis Facebook)
Former Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody was sworn in as Florida’s junior U.S. senator on Tuesday afternoon, becoming only the second woman to represent Florida in that legislative body and the first from the Tampa Bay area.
Moody was named by Gov. Ron DeSantis last week to replace Marco Rubio, who was sworn in as secretary of state earlier in the day.
“I’m ready to show up and fight for this nation and fight for President Trump to deliver his American First agenda on day one,” Moody said immediately following her appointment in Orlando last Thursday.
“Over the past six years, we secured victories fighting the opioid crisis, locking up human traffickers, pushing back on unlawful immigration policies, revolutionizing organized retail theft investigations, recruiting hundreds of new law enforcement officers, backing the blue, modernizing crime reporting, defending life, and so much more,” Moody posted as her final message on the Florida attorney general X account on Tuesday.
“It has been a tremendous honor to serve as your Attorney General, and I am determined to keep fighting for the future of our great state and nation as U.S. Senator.”
The daughter of a federal judge, Moody in 2006 became the state’s youngest judge in Florida at the age of 31 when she was elected to the trial bench in the state’s 13th Judicial Circuit in Hillsborough County. She was then elected as the state’s attorney general in 2018 and 2022, the second time by more than 20 percentage points.
Moody will face re-election to the seat in November 2026, at which point the Senate’s seat will be on the ballot in a special election.
New secretary of state
Meanwhile, Rubio became Trump’s first high-level Cabinet official to be approved by the Senate on Monday night, where he received a 99-0 vote.
On Tuesday afternoon, he arrived at the State Department as hundreds of employees crammed into the entrance hall to see their new boss.
He said in a speech that the mission of Trump’s foreign policy is “the advancement of our national interests.”
 “It was referenced by President Trump yesterday in his speech that his overriding goal for global policy is the promotion of peace, the avoidance of conflict, and no agency will be more critical in that regard than this one,” he said.
“In fact, that’s its founding principle and purpose, and that’s what we endeavor to do. To promote peace around the world because that’s in our national interests. Without peace it is hard to be a strong nation, a prosperous nation, and one that is better off.
“But there will also be challenges. We recognize that there will be those times unfortunately as humans interact with one another because of our nature, but there will be conflict. We will seek to prevent them and avoid them. But never at the expense of our national security. Never at the expense of our national interests, and never at the expense of our core values as a nation and as a people.”
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