Ashley Moody, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ pick to replace Sen. Marco Rubio in Congress, spent much of her tenure as Florida attorney general opposing Biden administration policies and advocating for conservative legal causes in the courtroom.
That experience on immigration, health, environmental and other issues is set to shape her approach in the Senate and potentially a 2026 election bid for the seat. During the news conference announcing the appointment, DeSantis himself highlighted Moody’s courtroom record for conservative causes.
Since taking office in 2019, Moody has carved out conservative positions in dozens of lawsuits both within and outside Florida — frequently backing President-elect Donald Trump or opposing the Biden administration.
“She has stood strong time and time again,” DeSantis said.
In her own remarks, Moody said she would “fight for President Trump to deliver the America First agenda on day one.”
An accompanying post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, Moody said she has spent her time “fighting federal overreach, protecting children and families, and bolstering law enforcement to create a safe environment for business and tourism to thrive.”
Moody has clashed with the Biden administration over immigration policies, leading or participating in several lawsuits against the administration. That includes an ongoing lawsuit filed in October against the Department of Homeland Security for allegedly refusing to cooperate with state officials in verifying the citizenship status of registered voters who the state suspected aren’t eligible to vote.
The lawsuits often repeat the claim that the Biden administration turned the border with Mexico into a “meaningless line in the sand and little more than a speedbump,” and arguing that the federal government should allow states like Florida to do more in enforcing immigration law.
During a news conference last week, Moody argued that the federal government is “tying our hands and our feet and pushing us into the water. We have no chance of survival” amid its handling of immigrants coming into the country.
Moody is one of more than a dozen Republican state attorneys general who regularly opposed Biden administration decisions in courts across the country, and she led multistate coalitions in several of those fights. Moody’s office has also led challenges to various Biden administration decisions, such as new energy efficiency standards for washing machines, medical protections for transgender patients and college accreditation rules.
The transgender patient protection suit challenges a rule from the Department of Health and Human Services purporting to ban discrimination in health care based on gender identity. Moody’s office argued in court filings that the rule would require insurers, and potentially the state, to cover puberty blockers, hormone treatments and surgeries for transgender patients in violation of federal law.
“Refusing to provide interventions to anyone because of doubts about medical efficacy or ethical misgivings is not treating transgender individuals differently at all, much less on the basis of sex,” the state’s complaint said.
Moody also stepped in at the Supreme Court to defend Trump, including signing on to a brief endorsing a challenge to the 2020 presidential election results and another endorsing Trump’s claims of immunity from most federal charges last year.
Moody also signed on to briefs in other cases along with a group of attorneys general across other GOP-controlled states, including Texas. Moody joined a brief from states defending North Carolina’s effort to further restrict the common abortion drug mifepristone through state law.
Separate from clashes with the Biden administration, Moody defended DeSantis’ moves in the Sunshine state. That includes fending off the legal challenges to the state’s congressional map and continuing litigation defending a state law banning gender-affirming care for minors, a ban on children attending drag performances and the state’s recent immigration enforcement law.
The likely most high-profile fight was in a Supreme Court case last year defending the state’s new social media law. The statute, similar to a Texas statute that faced Supreme Court arguments the same day, sought to regulate social media companies operating in the state.
After the oral arguments, Moody defended the law, saying it would “make more fair and consistent the way social media companies were censoring folks, deplatforming folks, shadow-banning folks.”
Her message in defending the state law echoed conservative complaints about social media companies, arguing that they have turned their platforms against conservative voices.
“These social media platforms have amassed a great deal of power,” Moody said.
Ultimately, the Supreme Court sent the Texas and Florida cases back to the lower courts for more litigation.
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