Sen. Ashley Moody (R-Fla.) will keep her seat in the Capitol’s Upper House until 2029.
Florida’s former Attorney General was declared the winner of her midterm election against Democratic State Rep. Angie Nixon on Nov. 3, shutting down the Democratic Socialists of America from gaining a prominent political foothold in the Sunshine State.
Moody rose to the Senate via special appointment by Gov. Ron DeSantis after Sen. Marco Rubio left the seat to serve as President Donald Trump’s Secretary of State. Rubio was elected as a senator in 2022.
Senators are initially elected by the state’s residents during an election year. But, in Florida, mid-term vacancies are filled by a governor’s appointee, while vacancies in the House of Representatives are filled by a special election in the corresponding district.
However, on Nov. 3, Florida voters got to decide who they wanted to finish out the rest of Rubio’s term, which will conclude in January 2029.
DeSantis appointed Moody in January 2025, describing her as someone “who stands unapologetically for conservative principles, supports law enforcement, [and] has a strong record of combating illegal immigration.”
As the state’s attorney general, Moody also took a stand against drug and human trafficking, and supported parental rights.
The fifth-generation Floridian from Plant City ran to stay in the Senate on a campaign of “law and order” and America-first policies.
Nixon, meanwhile, fought to claim the seat for Democrats.
The state representative ran on a campaign promising voters she would work to secure social benefits such as Medicare for all, universal childcare, and expanding affordable housing programs.
She also seeks to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement and take measures to disarm police.
At the same time, she also claimed positions more aligned with some of Florida’s Republican voters, such as regulating artificial intelligence, shutting down data center construction in the state, and ending mass surveillance.
In 2026, Nixon joined the Democratic Socialists of America, a growing far-left group that openly admits to pushing socialist policies.
Nixon claimed that she only did so to expand her coalition. While she finds herself aligned with democratic socialists on some issues, such as universal healthcare, she denies being a socialist.
During Florida’s early voting window, Nixon drew bipartisan backlash after appearing to decline calling Cuba’s communist regime a dictatorship, saying she had never been to the island to say for herself.
She later clarified her remarks on social media, “I say it clearly: I do not celebrate Castro. I call Cuba what it is, an authoritarian regime, and I will fight for the Cuban families who fled from it.”
Republicans will hold Florida’s two Senate seats for at least two more years.
Sen. Rick Scott, Florida’s Republican governor before DeSantis, faces reelection in 2030.
Florida’s last Democratic senator was Bill Nelson, who held the seat from 2001–2019 before finally falling to Scott in the 2018 general election.
Scott then held off Democratic challenger Debbie Mucarsel-Powell in 2024, beating her by more than 1.3 million votes.
Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the number of years before Moody’s seat is up for reelection. The Epoch Times regrets the error.
