Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday confirmed a double-header of government appointments, revealing that his Chief of Staff James Uthmeier will succeed Ashley Moody as Florida's Attorney General once she leaves office to become a U.S. Senator.
The sequence of musical chairs began in November when President-elect Donald Trump poached Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for Secretary of State, triggering an imminent Senate vacancy that DeSantis had to fill.
At a Thursday press conference in Orlando, after months of buzz and speculation over which conservative powerhouse would fill Rubio's shoes, he chose Moody.
Minutes later, DeSantis confirmed that Uthmeier will take over for Moody as the state's next attorney general.
"On Attorney General, my chief of staff James Uthmeier is like Ashley [Moody]; he's proven himself in these fights," the Florida Governor said. "I think she's got big shoes to fill, but I think he'll do a good job doing that, so you can anticipate that.
"I'm not gonna make [Uthmeier's] appointment before it's available, but I think that's something that will happen," DeSantis added.
Moody will be appointed to Rubio's Senate seat after Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20. Once the Attorney General role is vacant, DeSantis will appoint Uthmeier in her stead. Both the Senate seat and Attorney General position will be up for election in 2026 as the two DeSantis allies fill the remaining two years of the two terms.
Uthmeier's appointment ties into a web of Florida political connections. Between 2012 and 2014, he worked as a law clerk in Rubio's Senate office from 2012 to 2014. A graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, Uthmeier began working in DeSantis' legal office in 2019 as deputy general counsel and later served as general counsel between 2020 and 2021, the nwfdailynews reported at the time.
In September 2021, he took on the Chief of Staff role. He also served as DeSantis’ campaign manager during the governor’s 2024 presidential run, which ended after financial struggles. Though the presidential campaign was snuffed out at the hands of Donald Trump, Uthmeier continued to work as Chief of Staff.
That is, until his imminent appointment to Florida Attorney General.
