Jacob Ogles
U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody has raised another nearly $2 million to run to keep her seat.
The Plant City’s second-quarter reports show she collected more than $1.97 million from April through June, bringing her total contributions to more than $2.39 million this election cycle.
And she has kept most of the funding, spending less than $130,000 and closing the quarter with $2.62 million in cash on hand.
The resources could be important for Moody as she runs for federal office for the first time. Gov. Ron DeSantis in January appointed the former Florida Attorney General to one of Florida’s Senate seats, which opened after U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio resigned to become President Donald Trump’s Secretary of State.
DeSantis picked Moody — who won election to statewide office in 2018 at the same time the Governor was elected to his first term — over options including Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump.
That has spurred some speculation about whether a candidate more aligned with Trump might challenge Moody in a Republican Primary. U.S. Rep. Cory Mills earlier this year teased a potential campaign, for example, if DeSantis did not appoint him to the post.
But Moody since arriving in Washington has closely aligned herself with Trump’s policy agenda and has ingratiated herself with many of the President’s allies, including U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, Florida’s senior Senator.
This translated into significant success in fundraising. Moody reported more than $338,000 worth of contributions in the last quarter from individual contributors, while another nearly $365,000 came from PACs. She also reported $1.27 million in transfers from authorized political committees to her account.
But because she was appointed to her post, she must stand for election in 2026, while other freshman Senators elected last year have six years to raise money.
She appealed online to conservatives to defend Florida for Republicans, who now control both Senate seats for the state.
“We cannot risk Florida turning BLUE,” she wrote in an online fundraising appeal.
Of course, Florida hasn’t been represented by a Democrat in the Senate since Scott unseated former U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson in 2018, the same year Moody first won statewide office.
Additionally, in both 2018 and 2022, Moody received more votes than any candidate on the General Election ballot — including DeSantis.
The only other significant candidate to announce in 2026 is Democrat Josh Weil, a congressional candidate in a Special Election for a House seat earlier this year. Weil has raised more than $124,000 since announcing in June.
