Replacement for Rubio in the Senate in January

On By Littum

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Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday that a replacement for U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of state, likely won’t be named until early January.

The move gives DeSantis time to consider a wider range of candidates.

“We have already received strong interest from several possible candidates and we are continuing to collect names of additional candidates and conduct preliminary investigation,” DeSantis wrote on X. “More extensive investigation and candidate interviews will be conducted over the next few weeks, with a selection probably made in early January.”

Trump doesn’t take office until Jan. 20, and the timing of Rubio’s Senate confirmation is unknown.

Rubio is not up for re-election to the Senate until 2028. Under state and federal law, DeSantis can appoint his replacement for two years, with a special election for the remaining two years of Rubio’s term.

Initial candidates for the seat had included DeSantis loyalists such as Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, former Florida House Speaker Jose Oliva and DeSantis chief of staff James Uthmeier.

But Uthmeier is now eyeing the vacant Congressional District 1 seat in the Panhandle following the resignation of Matt Gaetz, a source familiar with the matter told USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida.

Trump chose Gaetz as US attorney general. Despite some doubt that Gaetz, who has had an antagonistic relationship with centrist Republicans, would be confirmed, the seat is already open because Gaetz resigned from Congress last week, days before the release of a potentially damaging report from a house survey.

Another name closer to Trump has also been floated – Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump. She is the wife of Trump’s son Eric and lives in Palm Beach County. She has served as co-chair of the Republican National Committee, but grew up in North Carolina.

DeSantis doesn’t usually rush to fill open positions

The governor has often spent considerable time reviewing candidates’ records and conducting interviews before making important appointments.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, he left e.g. Florida’s Supreme Court seats were open earlier in state law — which he was able to ignore because of the pandemic emergency — before he filled them.

“Florida deserves a senator who will help President Trump deliver on his electoral mandate, be strong on immigration and border security, take on the entrenched bureaucracy and administrative state, reverse the nation’s fiscal decline, be animated by conservative principles and have a proven record of results,” DeSantis wrote in his post.

The appointments of Rubio, Gaetz and another member of Florida’s congressional delegation, U.S. Rep. Mike Waltz, who was tapped to be national security adviser, has skewed Sunshine State politics and could lead to a domino effect as politicians push to fill the open seats.

DeSantis must call special elections to fill the seats vacated by Gaetz and Waltz and has said he will do so as soon as possible.

Republicans hold a slim majority in the U.S. House, and quickly filling those seats, which lean heavily toward the GOP, will help advance Trump’s legislative agenda early in his term.

Gray Rohrer is a reporter with the USA TODAY Network-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be found at [email protected]. Follow him on X: @GrayRohrer.