Gov. Ron DeSantis with Hillsborough County State Attorney Suzy Lopez in Tampa on Jan. 7, 2024 (Photo credit: Mitch Perry/ Florida Phoenix)
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday he has not yet decided on who he will appoint to replace Marco Rubio in the U.S. Senate, but he promised to have “somebody ready to go” shortly after President-elect Donald Trump takes office later this month. Trump has tapped Rubio to become his secretary of state.
The Governor addressed the media following a Tampa investiture ceremony for Hillsborough County State Attorney Suzy Lopez. Also participating in the ceremony were Attorney General Ashley Moody and former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Moody has been rumored to be on DeSantis’ shortlist of Senate candidates that he is considering to replace Rubio, but the Republican governor brushed aside an inquiry about her chances when a reporter asked if any potential candidate “was in the room with us today.”
DeSantis laughed, paused and said, “I’m not going to be refereeing any ‘who’s in, who’s out,’ but I will say that we’ve done a lot of research on candidates. I think that we’ve got a lot of great people in Florida who’ve made a big difference. We also have certain issues that are very, very significant,” DeSantis told reporters. “And when I put out my statement after the vacancy was potentially there with Sen. Rubio’s nomination, I said ‘We have to deliver on the mandate that the voters gave President Donald Trump.’ ”
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What he’s looking for
DeSantis said his Senate appointment has to be strong on immigration issues, but not just illegal immigration. He said he wanted the next U.S. senator representing Florida to ensure that visa programs such as the H1-B skilled worker visa “aren’t being used to undermine American workers.”
“Being willing to say we shouldn’t have a diversity lottery where someone just comes out of a hat,” he added. “We should have merit-based [immigration]. We shouldn’t have massive chain migration. All of these things I think we’ve got to get this right, once and for all.”
Then DeSantis, who briefly was a candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2016 during Rubio’s failed presidential bid but subsequently dropped out, said his pick would be somebody who is fiscally responsible and would try to rein in what called an “out of control” federal bureaucracy.
“That is not what the founding fathers intended so I want somebody who is going to go in there and be willing to reduce that down to size and to hold the wayward bureaucrats accountable,” he said.
DeSantis’ Senate appointment will head to Washington but will have to go before the voters in a special election slated in November of 2026. There will then be another regular scheduled election for that senate seat in 2028.
“A number of great candidates”
“I think we’ve got a number of great candidates, but I want to make sure that we know what we’re going to get,” he said. “I can endorse somebody, and they run and win, they don’t owe me anything. But if I’m going to be appointing you, I want to know that you’re going to be strong on all of these issues.”
Along with Moody, other potential candidates include Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez, DeSantis chief-of-staff James Uthmeier, former Florida House Speaker Jose Oliva and state Sen. Jay Collins.
Rubio has not yet officially resigned from his seat, which he has held since first being elected in 2010. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has announced that Rubio’s confirmation hearing for secretary of state is 10 a.m. Jan. 15.
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