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In a narrow victory, Sen. Ashley Moody wins Florida

More than 8.3 million people voted to chose incumbent Senator Ashley Moody as the state's new U.S. Senator.
Meghan Bowman
/
WUSF
More than 8.3 million people voted to chose incumbent Senator Ashley Moody as the state's new U.S. Senator.

Moody won 50.8% of Florida's voters with 4,103,392 votes.

"I am mindful that there are millions of Floridians that voted for someone else. And what I think the message there is: they want government to be accountable. They want to make sure they have a government that is offering and protecting meaningful opportunity to pursue happiness for their families, so their families can thrive. That is not lost on me, and I want everyone to know whether you voted for me or whether you didn't vote for me. I am your senator. I am here to serve you," said Moody.

Hotel Haya in Ybor City was packed for Moody's election night party. She told the crowd she is very worried about the movement of socialism.

"I am very concerned that our young people in this country, ages 18 to 34, very few of them, and the teens, are extremely proud to be an American. If you compare that to those over 70, over 70 percent would say they are. Extremely proud to be an American, and what that means to me is, our generation somehow has dropped the ball," said Moody.

While her opponent, Angie Nixon, drummed up enthusiasm among younger voters, she didn't gain enough momentum to push her over the edge. Her grassroots campaign brought her a surprise victory over Alexander Vindman during the primaries, who'd outraised her 16:1.

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Before the election, University of North Florida's Sean Freeder said he would have been surprised to see Nixon win; she trailed Moody by four points.

Freeder is the faculty director of the Public Opinion Research Lab (PORL) at UNF. He said one of their polls found that some Republicans were dissatisfied over the Hope Florida scandal, but it didn't translate into people crossing party lines to vote.

"We also find that you know for crossover voting, one of the things you'd imagine is that running a former Republican like David Jolly have a better chance of bringing over Republican voters," Freeder said. "You run Angie Nixon, someone that's flirted with socialism, you have a harder time bringing over Republican voters."

Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Moody as senator in 2025 to fill Marco Rubio's seat. Moody will serve the remainder of the six-year term until 2028, when the seat comes up for election once again.

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Meghan Bowman
Meghan Bowman
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