By Steve Contorno

(CNN) — Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday named state Attorney General Ashley Moody to the US Senate, choosing a staunch ally to fill the seat set to be vacated by Marco Rubio, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of state.

Moody, a former prosecutor and judge who once sued Trump for fraud, will join the Senate after Rubio resigns from the chamber and serve until 2026. She will then be able to run in a special election to fill the final two years of his term.

At 49 years old, Moody would be well-positioned to become a key player in Florida’s — and the nation’s — future for years to come.

In accepting the appointment, Moody acknowledged her hesitance to join Congress, a slow-acting body known for its gridlock, insisting she prefers to be where she can “get things done.”

“And then I thought, if every person with the same energy, the same love and respect for our founding principles — the ideals on which this country was built on — if every person like that with that personality said, ‘I don’t think I’d like serving in Congress,’ then we’d never change that culture,” Moody said.

She added: “I probably won’t like it, but I’m ready to show up and fight for this nation and fight for President Trump to deliver the American First agenda on day one.”

Rubio has not yet announced his resignation from the Senate. Floridians first elected the Republican to the chamber in a three-way race in 2010 and twice voted to send him back to Washington.

In tapping Moody, DeSantis has elevated a trusted confidante who has played a central role in advancing his conservative agenda. DeSantis previously said he promised Trump he would appoint a person who would give him a strong supporter in Congress’ narrowly divided upper chamber.

“In every major battle we have had since I have been governor, she has been with us every step of the way,” DeSantis said. “It’s not just talk; it’s results, and these results are very, very important. And she understands the gravity of the moment. We may not have an opportunity like this in the near future.”

DeSantis also recently acknowledged his broader ambitions in filling the vacancy, telling reporters at Mar-a-Lago last week: “This will be someone that could run in two years and then run after that and potentially be up there a long time.”

The appointment caps weeks of political intrigue following Trump’s announcement in November that he would name Rubio as his top diplomat. Allies of the incoming president – including billionaire Elon Musk and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk – pressured DeSantis to award the job to the president-elect’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, who publicly confirmed her interest in serving.

DeSantis, though, privately made clear to the president-elect that he intended to look elsewhere to fill the seat, and Lara Trump eventually pulled her name from consideration.

Moody appeared to be an early front-runner, but multiple sources close to DeSantis told CNN that the Florida governor remained hopeful she might instead run to succeed him in Tallahassee. DeSantis, who is term-limited, has a fractured relationship with several of the Republicans considering gubernatorial bids in 2026, including former Rep. Matt Gaetz and Rep. Byron Donalds – two former friends who ultimately endorsed Trump over DeSantis during the 2024 Republican presidential primary.

By joining the Senate, though, Moody may avoid a more difficult road to staying in office beyond 2026. Gaetz and Donalds are deeply popular with Republican primary voters and Trump’s base while Moody has at times found her on the opposite side of the incoming president.

Moody, the granddaughter of a judge, has deep roots in Florida’s legal community. She grew up in Plant City just east of Tampa, where her father was a federal judge and her mother was a lawyer for a local nonprofit that provided legal services to the poor. DeSantis appointed her brother to a judgeship in 2022.

She came to local fame early, earning the pageant title of Plant City Strawberry Festival Queen in 1993 and then went on to graduate from University of Florida and earned her law degree from Stetson University. While in college, she changed her party registration from Democrat to Republican.

Moody and her family in 2009 sued Trump, then a celebrity developer, over a high-rise planned for Tampa that fell apart. The federal case, which sought repayments for burned investors in Trump Tower Tampa, ultimately ended up in a settlement. Some people lost five- and six-figure investments in the failed project, the Tampa Bay Times reported in 2015.

In 2016, at age 31, Moody became the youngest judge elected in the state. She resigned her position two years later to run for attorney general, and she was successful in the same cycle that DeSantis won the governorship. She succeeded Pam Bondi, who served two terms as the state’s top prosecutor and became a conservative media star in the process. Trump recently nominated Bondi as his next attorney general after his first choice, Gaetz, withdrew amid Republican concerns.

At first, Moody expressed interest in distancing the attorney general’s office from the hyper-partisan battles that marked Bondi’s tenure. “I’m a prosecutor, not a politician,” her campaign ads said. But that pivot was ultimately short-lived. Once in office, she closely aligned herself with Trump, intervening in support of the Republican president in several cases.

In the aftermath of Trump’s 2020 defeat, Moody joined 16 other Republican attorneys general who urged the US Supreme Court to take up a Texas lawsuit challenging election results in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. The Supreme Court rejected the case. Two years later, Trump endorsed Moody for a second term.

But in May 2023, with Florida Republicans torn in the GOP primary for president between their governor and the former president, Moody endorsed DeSantis over Trump. She ultimately campaigned for DeSantis, including an appearance in Iowa ahead of the state’s caucuses.

After DeSantis dropped out the race, Moody repositioned herself as a Trump acolyte once again, using her office to support his fight against the legal cases against him. In November, Moody urged the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to affirm the dismissal of US Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of Trump.

Moody’s ascension to the US Senate will give her a leg up on the competition heading into 2026, but it may not prevent primary competition. US Rep. Cory Mills recently went public with his interest in the seat and indicated he is considering running no matter who DeSantis picked.

“We need fighters in the Senate,” Mills told Fox News recently. “We need people that come in with a fresh perspective.”

DeSantis said Thursday that he intends to name his chief of staff, James Uthmeier, to replace Moody as attorney general. Uthmeier, who previously ran DeSantis’ unsuccessful presidential bid as campaign manager, once worked in Rubio’s Senate office and later served in the US Department of Commerce under Trump.

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

CORRECTION: This story has been corrected to reflect that Marco Rubio’s Senate term ends in 2028.

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