MIAMI — Florida’s recent GOP stars have thrived on brash confrontations, political stunts, big personalities and a relentless media presence.

And then there’s Sen. Ashley Moody’s quieter path to power.

The Florida Republican poised to be at the top of the ticket in November has transformed herself into a reliable partisan warrior on policy. But unlike the GOP’s biggest Sunshine State names — including Gov. Ron DeSantis or her successor, state Attorney General James Uthmeier — Moody built her career without the pugnacious, ever-present persona that’s become synonymous with the state party. And that approach is worrying some Republicans.

“I think she has been a great senator for Florida,” said Dan Eberhart, GOP donor and managing partner of Eberhart Capital. “I wish her campaign was more visible.”

DeSantis appointed Moody in early 2025 to fill Marco Rubio’s seat when he left to run the State Department. Now she’s running for the first time to keep it — and doing so with limited unscripted moments, a smattering of controlled campaign events and muted engagement on the state’s most contentious issues.

Moody, a former elected circuit judge and twice-elected Florida attorney general, built her political career using a cautious and deliberate style that her allies trace to her judicial training. That prudence helped Moody deftly navigate a Republican Party full of competing loyalties.

She avoided a serious primary challenger by locking down President Donald Trump’s endorsement early. And as DeSantis has criticized Trump’s pick of GOP Rep. Byron Donalds for governor, it was Moody he once envisioned as the best heir to his legacy. Brian Ballard, a powerhouse lobbyist from Florida, predicted Moody would “be reelected with ease.”

“Ashley campaigns like she governs: effective, low key and not a show boat,” he said.

But Moody is carrying out her low-key strategy in a political environment that has seen Republicans encounter headwinds nationally due to concerns over the war with Iran and the economy. Republicans have built in advantages in the Sunshine State, but GOP consultants in Florida are growing worried about a lack of enthusiasm among their core voters and about her campaign approach, which stands in contrast to GOP Sen. Rick Scott and Rubio before her.

In interviews, more than 30 Republicans, operatives, consultants and others described Moody as personable and deeply connected. But many raised concerns that her cautious strategy could hurt down-ballot Republicans. Several people were granted anonymity to discuss their worries because they feared reprisal from an influential figure they still expect to win.

“She’s not out there, and a lot of Republicans are concerned about it because she is at the top of the ticket,” said one GOP operative, who said Trump’s unpredictability made the political environment harder for Republicans. “You can be risk averse, but you can’t be too cautious,” the person added.

Moody — who once asserted she didn’t campaign for attorney general to “play politics with this office” — endeared herself to Republicans as state AG by repeatedly suing former President Joe Biden. She supported a legal effort by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that questioned election results in four states in 2020. In press conferences, she often appeared in a supporting role to the governor, at one point saying, “That’s why I love working in this administration,” although she was independently elected.

Campaign spokesperson Cameron Gambini said DeSantis trusted Moody by appointing her to the Senate and pointed to her work as state attorney general when she “fought to make Florida the freest state in the nation — opening the state early in the pandemic while Biden pushed closures and mask mandates, and suing the Biden administration when they tried to infringe on our rights — and won.”

Since joining the Senate, Moody has largely stuck to friendly interviews on Newsmax and Fox News. She recorded occasional local news hits, but not about her campaign. In a June interview with POLITICO, her campaign tried to limit the discussion to America’s 250th anniversary. She talked up the GOP tax law and derided socialists in New York as having “undercut what has built this country.”

She doesn’t take questions from reporters in the halls of Congress, a typical way senators communicate their stances on crucial votes and issues. And Gambini said she wasn’t available to discuss her race for this story.

Her campaign waited five days to respond to a CBS News Miami investigation that questioned her role in a controversy that allegedly diverted taxpayer dollars to a political cause, even as one of her well-funded Democratic opponents, retired Lt. Col. Alex Vindman, seized on it. Gambini said Thursday that Moody had no role in any grand jury proceedings that resulted from the controversy and had “no issue with the public release of any report” about those proceedings.

During an appearance at the state GOP’s annual meeting in January, Moody addressed rank-and-file Republicans from the stage. But unlike several other elected GOP officials who attended, she didn’t mingle with the crowd after her brief speech, instead leaving from a side entrance. Moody in June stood next to Scott at a press conference to protest a planned Tampa concert from Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West. But she left before Scott and former Gov. Charlie Crist took questions from reporters.

One person familiar with how she operates, granted anonymity to speak candidly, described her as a “perfectionist” who “doesn’t like questions out of nowhere” and is wary of her comments being misconstrued. Another Republican had a similar interpretation, calling Moody “very careful and cautious,” saying she’d been known to ask after public appearances whether anything she said “raised bells or alarms.”

People who questioned Moody’s style said it puzzled them given how warmly voters respond to her. One county-level GOP volunteer said her campaign signs are always well received, but that their county struggled to schedule her for an event. Another GOP chair complained she’d been “lulled into a false sense of security” and pointed out that because of the vacancy appointment timetable, Moody would be on the ballot again in 2028.

“She has got all the cards in her favor. She’s a sitting senator backed by the two most popular people in Florida: Trump and DeSantis,” the person said. “Yet despite all that, she seems incapable of capitalizing on it.”

Moody’s defenders argue she shouldn’t have to change what works: In her state attorney general races, she received more votes than DeSantis. Even past opponents recognize her strengths. Former Rep. Frank White, her 2018 GOP primary challenger who once criticized her for being a registered Democrat until 1998, told POLITICO she showed an “almost effortless connection with voters.”

Republican Party of Florida Chair Evan Power similarly praised her abilities to connect with people. He conceded Moody doesn’t “search the spotlight as much as other people do” but rejected the idea that she’s risk averse. He contended she “delivers” and added, “She comes from that judicial background where she’ll let her work talk for her rather than her opinion.”

Last month, Moody unceremoniously split with DeSantis to endorse Donalds for governor. She then campaigned with him in Orlando at a burger joint and a law enforcement endorsement event, and again in The Villages on Friday. While it appeared to be another instance of Moody ceding the spotlight, the Donalds campaign insisted the decision came as a result of both candidates wanting to show unity and understanding the “gravity and responsibility” and “joint interest” in helping the party.

“We are top of the ticket,” the Donalds campaign said. “And it’s our job — Moody and Donalds both — to turn out the vote and help everyone be successful in November.”

Moody’s candidacy stands out in other ways. At 51, she’s the second-youngest woman in the Senate and only the second woman to represent Florida in the upper chamber. She’s married to a law enforcement officer, has a son in the military and another teenage son still at home.

“We get trapped in the swamp a lot up in DC,” Moody told a GOP audience in June at the state party’s Sunshine State Showdown. “I’m back here as much as I can be.”

Asked about her Senate tenure, Gambini said she “believes her work speaks for itself” and predicted announcing her policy wins “makes it that much easier” for voters to support her. He called her “results-driven,” pointing to a Best Constituent Services award she received from the bipartisan Congressional Management Foundation — and how Quorum data ranked her the fifth-busiest freshman in the Senate, in a class of 12. He drew attention to how she secured $2 billion in long-sought FEMA funding, a measure to overturn Biden-era energy regulations on refrigerators and freezers and a rule change she pushed that modernized orange juice standards.

Moody has shown a keen ability to maneuver complex GOP power structures. During the heated 2024 presidential primary, Moody was the only Cabinet member to endorse DeSantis. Rep. Laurel Lee, Moody’s closest friend, temporarily faced Trump’s ire and primary threats after doing the same.

Moody, however, avoided becoming a target, perhaps thanks to allegiances in the president’s orbit. She’s close friends with former U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, her predecessor in Florida’s AG office. The wife of top Trump adviser James Blair, Samantha Blair, worked for her, including on her first state AG campaign. Early in her Senate race, Moody hired Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio, and former 2024 Trump campaign co-chair Chris LaCivita joined a super PAC supporting her election.

A person familiar with how she sought the Trump endorsement said the two had a “positive relationship” and met in the Oval Office last year to discuss the agenda and her race. When Moody asked for the endorsement, he agreed. Asked about the exchange, Gambini said Moody and Trump speak “frequently” but she “does not comment on her private conversations.”

Nevertheless, the decision was notable because Trump wanted DeSantis to tap his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, for Senate before she bowed out. It also marked a striking turn from 16 years ago, when Moody and members of her family accused Trump of fraud over a Tampa condominium project that was never built. The case was settled.

Moody’s dynamic was even warmer with DeSantis. The governor — known more for the bridges he’s burned than the ones he built — once envisioned Moody succeeding him in Tallahassee, two people familiar with his thinking said.

One even said DeSantis assumed Moody would return to Florida after her time in the Senate and run for governor this cycle, though she hadn’t expressed interest in pursuing the job. Running for governor would have meant challenging Trump’s choice of Donalds.

“For her, the decision was easy,” the second person with knowledge of the dynamic between DeSantis and Moody told POLITICO. “For him, the decision was very difficult.”

Kimberly Leonard reported from Miami and Gary Fineout reported from Tallahassee. 

CORRECTION: A previous version of this report misspelled Dan Eberhart’s name.



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