Ashley Moody | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2025 | |
| United States Senator fromFlorida | |
| Assumed office January 21, 2025 Serving with Rick Scott | |
| Appointed by | Ron DeSantis |
| Preceded by | Marco Rubio |
| 38thFlorida Attorney General | |
| In office January 8, 2019 – January 21, 2025 | |
| Governor | Ron DeSantis |
| Preceded by | Pam Bondi |
| Succeeded by | James Uthmeier |
| Judge of theThirteenth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida | |
| In office January 2, 2007 – April 28, 2017 | |
| Preceded by | Susan Sexton |
| Succeeded by | Jennifer Gabbard |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Ashley Brooke Moody (1975-03-28)March 28, 1975 (age 50) Plant City, Florida, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican (1998–present) |
| Other political affiliations | Democratic (1993–1998) |
| Spouse | Justin Duralia |
| Children | 2 |
| Relatives | James S. Moody Jr. (father) |
| Education | University of Florida (BS,MS,JD) Stetson University (LLM) |
| Signature |  |
| Website | Senate website Campaign website |
Ashley Brooke Moody (born March 28, 1975) is an American politician, attorney, and former jurist serving since 2025 as thejuniorUnited States senator fromFlorida. A member of theRepublican Party, she served from 2019 to 2025 as the 38thFlorida attorney general, from 2007 to 2017 as acircuit court judge inHillsborough County, and as anassistant U.S. attorney at theU.S. Attorney's Office in the Middle District of Florida before entering electoral politics.
As Florida attorney general, Moody supported lawsuits to invalidate theAffordable Care Act and opposed thelegalization of recreational marijuana. She supported then-PresidentDonald Trump inFlorida during the2020 presidential election, and joined in theTexas v. Pennsylvania lawsuit, which sought tooverturn the results of the election.
In January 2025, GovernorRon DeSantis appointed Moody to the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the resignation ofMarco Rubio, who becameUnited States Secretary of State. On January 21, 2025, she was sworn in by Vice PresidentJD Vance, becoming Florida's second female senator, afterPaula Hawkins.
Moody's appointment expires in January 2027; to remain in the Senate, she must win aspecial election in November 2026.[1]
Moody was born inPlant City, Florida, on March 28, 1975.[2] She is the oldest of three children born to Carol and JudgeJames S. Moody Jr.[3]
Moody graduated fromPlant City High School in 1993.[4] She received abachelor's degree andmaster's degree in accounting fromUniversity of Florida. While attending the University of Florida, she served as president ofFlorida Blue Key.[5] Moody earned aMaster of Laws in international law fromStetson University College of Law, and herJuris Doctor from theUniversity of Florida School of Law.[6]
Moody interned forMartha Barnett, the president of theAmerican Bar Association,[3] and later joined the law firmHolland & Knight, working in civil litigation.[7]
In January 1998, Moody switched her party affiliation fromDemocratic toRepublican. Upon his election, Florida governorJeb Bush appointed her to be the student representative on theBoard of Regents, a now-defunct body that ran thestate's university system.[2]
Moody was appointed an assistantU.S. attorney for theMiddle District of Florida.[7] In 2006, she was elected to theThirteenth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida inHillsborough County.[8][9][10]
On April 28, 2017, Moody resigned from the court to run forFlorida attorney general in the2018 election.[11][12] In theRepublican primary, she defeated state representativeFrank White.[13][14] In the general election, Moody defeated Democratic nomineeSean Shaw, a state representative, with 52% of the vote to Shaw's 46%.[15]
Moody was reelected in the2022 election over Democratic nomineeAramis Ayala by a 21-point margin.[16][17]
Moody kept Florida in a lawsuit that seeks to have theAffordable Care Act deemed unconstitutional.[18][19]
Moody argued for the disqualification of a 2022 ballot measure tolegalize recreational cannabis in Florida, contending that it was misleading because the summary (which could not be longer than 75 words) did not clarify that cannabis would remain illegal under federal law.[20][21] The Supreme Court of Florida agreed in a 5–2 ruling, effectively killing the initiative, which had already received 556,049 signatures of 891,589 required to appear on the ballot.[22][23] Two months later, the court granted Moody's request that a second ballot measure to legalize recreational cannabis be disqualified from the 2022 ballot, in another 5–2 ruling that deemed the measure "affirmatively misleading".[24][25]
In June 2023, Moody argued for the disqualification of a 2024 ballot measure to legalize recreational cannabis in Florida, filing a 49-page legal brief that asserted once again that the summary failed to make clear that cannabis would remain illegal under federal law, among other arguments.[26] The challenge sought to strike down the initiative, which had received 967,528 of a required 891,523 valid signatures to appear on the ballot.[27] The Florida Supreme Court ruled 5–2 that the initiative would remain on the ballot.[28][29]
Moody opposed the restoration of voting rights for former felons.[30] After theVoting Rights Restoration for Felons Initiative passed in 2018, she and GovernorRon DeSantis helped push a bill through theFlorida Senate that would restore voting rights to eligible felons only once the felons had paid all their court fees. In 2020, afterMichael Bloomberg raised $16 million to pay 32,000 felons' court fees, which would make them eligible to vote in the2020 elections, Moody asked theFederal Bureau of Investigation and theFlorida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate Bloomberg, claiming he potentially violated election laws.[31]
During the2020 presidential election,Politico called Moody "one ofDonald Trump's biggest surrogates" in Florida.[5] AfterJoe Biden won the election and Trump refused to concede, Moody took a leading role in aiding Trump's attempts to contest the election.[32]
On December 9, 2020, Moody and 15 otherstate attorneys general announced their support for alawsuit byKen Paxton, theTexas attorney general, asking theSupreme Court of the United States to invalidate the presidential election results inGeorgia,Michigan,Pennsylvania, andWisconsin, which were all won by Biden.[33] There was no evidence of large-scale fraud in the election,[34][35] and the court decided 7-2 not to hear the Texas lawsuit.[36][37]
Moody was on the board of directors for the Rule of Law Defense Fund. In January 2021, the organization encouraged the gathering at theCapitol building to call for a halt on thecounting of the Electoral College ballots, which they contended were fraudulent. After the pro-Trump mobstormed the Capitol, Moody removed any references to the Rule of Law Defense Fund from her online biography.[32]
In 2021, amid theCOVID-19 pandemic, Moody sued the federal government and theCDC for instituting requirements that cruise ships require 95% of passengers to be fully vaccinated.[38][39]
In January 2024, Moody petitioned the Florida Supreme Court to disqualify a ballot measure to expand abortion access, claiming its language could mislead voters.[40] The measure remained on the ballot but failed to garner the necessary 60% of the vote to amend the Florida Constitution.[41]
On January 16, 2025, GovernorRon DeSantis announced his intention to appoint Moody to the U.S. Senate seat vacated byMarco Rubio, who was nominated to serve as Secretary of State (and subsequently unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate) in thesecond Trump administration.[42][43] She is Florida's second female senator, afterPaula Hawkins.[44]
Moody was sworn in on January 21, 2025, along with former Ohio lieutenant governorJon Husted, by Vice PresidentJD Vance. She was escorted by fellow Florida senatorRick Scott.[45]
Moody is married to Justin Duralia, the deputy chief of the Plant City Police Department and a formerDrug Enforcement Administration officer.[46][7] They have two children.[47]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Ashley Moody | 41,522 | 39.08% | N/A | |
| Democratic | Gary Dolgin | 33,675 | 31.70% | N/A | |
| Independent | Pat Courtney | 31,042 | 29.22% | N/A | |
| Majority | 7,847 | 7.38% | N/A | ||
| Turnout | 106,239 | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Ashley Moody | 142,610 | 60.31% | N/A | |
| Democratic | Gary Dolgin | 93,854 | 39.69% | N/A | |
| Majority | 48,756 | 20.62% | N/A | ||
| Turnout | 236,464 | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Ashley Moody | 882,028 | 56.80% | N/A | |
| Republican | Frank White | 670,823 | 43.20% | N/A | |
| Majority | 211,205 | 13.60% | N/A | ||
| Turnout | 1,552,851 | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Ashley Moody | 4,232,532 | 52.11% | −2.96% | |
| Democratic | Sean Shaw | 3,744,912 | 46.10% | +4.09% | |
| Independent | Jeffrey Marc Siskind | 145,296 | 1.79% | N/A | |
| Majority | 487,620 | 6.01% | −7.07% | ||
| Turnout | 8,122,740 | ||||
| Republicanhold | |||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Ashley Moody (incumbent) | 4,651,279 | 60.59% | +8.48% | |
| Democratic | Aramis Ayala | 3,025,943 | 39.41% | −6.69% | |
| Total votes | 7,677,222 | 100.0% | |||
| Republicanhold | |||||
{{cite web}}:Missing or empty|title= (help)| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Republican nominee forAttorney General of Florida 2018,2022 | Most recent |
| Legal offices | ||
| Preceded by | Attorney General of Florida 2019–2025 | Succeeded by John Guard Acting |
| U.S. Senate | ||
| Preceded by | U.S. Senator (Class 3) from Florida 2025–present Served alongside:Rick Scott | Incumbent |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded by | Order of precedence of the United States as United States Senator | Succeeded byas Governor of Delaware |
| United States senators by seniority 100th | Last | |
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| Class 1 | | |
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| Class 3 | ||
