Republican Sen. Ashley Moody won re-election to her Florida Senate seat last week, even as the GOP suffered broad losses nationally in the midterm elections, losing between seven and nine Senate seats overall.
Moody, who was first elected statewide as Florida’s attorney general in 2018 by a narrow margin and then re-elected in 2022 by 21 points, framed her Senate win as a response to voters’ demand for accountable government.
“I fought tooth and nail this election to make sure Floridians know that what we have here is special, and it can be dismantled in one cycle,” Moody told Fox News Digital.
She said her campaign centered on two themes that resonated across party lines.
“Talking to folks on the ground and meeting them where they were was vital, and I heard many people from all political backgrounds present a consistent message – they want a government that is accountable and a government that protects their pursuit of the American Dream. I put that front and center in my campaign and Floridians backed me for it.”
Moody’s result stood out against losses elsewhere for Republicans. In Texas, GOP incumbent Ken Paxton lost his Senate bid. In South Carolina, Sen. Darlene Graham — who took over the seat of her late brother Lindsey Graham after his death earlier this year — also lost, in a race some observers tied to President Donald Trump’s decision to back her. Republicans also lost Senate seats held by John Cornyn of Texas and Susan Collins of Maine, and the Ohio seat previously held by Vice President JD Vance.
Florida’s broader Republican success in the election also included the election of Rep. Byron Donalds as governor. Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has built a political brand in the state around themes of government accountability, offered his own explanation for the national GOP losses.
“A lot of our voters who stayed home, they stayed home because they were frustrated with the lack of productivity from Republicans in the House and Senate. That’s just a fact. They were promised big things, and they didn’t deliver it,” DeSantis said.
That explanation differs from Vice President JD Vance’s view that GOP voters turned out but voted for Democrats, which Vance has attributed in part to the war in Iran and the United States’ relationship with Israel.
With Senate seats shifting away from Republicans in Texas, South Carolina, Ohio and Maine this cycle, Moody’s successful hold on Florida’s seat gives her added seniority within the shrinking Senate GOP caucus as the party weighs how to respond heading into the next election cycle.
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