Moody retains Florida Senate seat after defeating Nixon

Ashley Moody retained a Florida Senate seat in a special election held this week.

The Republican defeated Democrat Angie Nixon in the contest to fill the vacancy left by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. NBC News projected the victory for Moody, who had served as the state attorney general before Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed her to the Senate. She will serve the remaining two years of the term Rubio won in 2022. The seat returns to the ballot in 2028 for a full term.

Moody was the heavy favorite entering the general election. She held a substantial fundraising advantage and used those resources to purchase extensive television advertising in a state with 23 million residents. Nixon, a candidate aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America, won the Democratic primary in an upset. She spent the general campaign cycle running a grass-roots operation that included frequent in-person events and appearances on center-left podcasts.

The race drew national attention after Nixon’s primary victory. Democrats viewed her candidacy as a chance to break a long-standing Republican hold on Florida Senate seats, a party that has not won a Senate race in the state since 2012. Moody’s campaign focused on positioning Nixon as too liberal for a electorate that now has 1.5 million more registered Republicans than Democrats. This represents a major shift from the decades when Democrats held a registration advantage. Moody’s ads targeted DSA policy platforms, including proposals to abolish police, a stance Nixon said she did not support.

Moody faced criticism for her approach to the campaign. She declined to debate Nixon and participated in fewer public events than her opponent. Nikki Fried, the Florida Democratic Party chair, criticized Moody at an October news conference in Tallahassee. Fried urged Moody to stop hiding behind attacks and to engage directly with voters. A sign at the event asked, “Where is Ashley Moody?”

Moody also navigated scrutiny over the Hope Florida scandal. The controversy involved $10 million from a Medicaid settlement directed to a charity tied to First Lady Casey DeSantis. That money was later used by a political committee to oppose a 2024 ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana. As attorney general, Moody signed off on the deal. She denied wrongdoing, and a state prosecutor’s grand jury did not bring charges after reviewing the matter.