DeSantis to Name Sen. Rubio's Successor by January

Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis vowed to announce his pick to replace outgoing Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., "by the beginning of January."

The successor to Rubio, announced as President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to be the next secretary of state, is under DeSantis' purview as governor and he vowed Monday to have that pick announced even before Rubio takes his new role in the administration Jan. 20, 2025.

"Sen. Marco Rubio is expected to resign from the Senate to assume duties as Secretary of State when the Trump administration takes power on January 20th, creating a vacancy roughly two months from today," DeSantis wrote in a post on X from his governor's account.

"We have already received strong interest from several possible candidates, and we continue to gather names of additional candidates and conduct preliminary vetting. More extensive vetting and candidate interviews will be conducted over the next few weeks, with a selection likely made by the beginning of January.

"Florida deserves a senator who will help President Trump deliver on his election 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 has a proven record of results."

There has been talk Lara Trump, the daughter-in-law of the president-elect and victorious Republican National Committee co-chair, could be a potential Rubio successor.

With Rubio tapped, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., nominated to be attorney general, and Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., in line to be national security adviser, Florida has to back-fill three seats in the closely divided Congress.

The current House count stands at 220-213 with two races left to call — both seats held by GOP incumbents in California — while the Senate is projected to be 53-47 with Sen.-elect David McCormick, R-Pa., facing a recount forced by defeated Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa.

Waltz, a three-term congressman who represents Florida's 6th Congressional District south of Jacksonville, has not yet resigned his seat and neither has Rubio.

Under federal and state law, the processes for filling vacancies in the U.S. House and Senate are different. To fill an open House seat, Florida must hold a special election where voters will be able to directly choose their next representative.

On the Senate side, DeSantis gets to appoint someone to take over Rubio’s seat, assuming his colleagues confirm him as secretary of state. Rubio's replacement would hold the seat until the next regularly scheduled election in 2026.

Among the names being floated for Rubio's seat: DeSantis himself.

"I'm not familiar with anything that prevents him from naming himself — other than hubris, I suppose," Tallahassee-based elections lawyer Ron Meyer told The Associated Press.

DeSantis' term as governor runs out in 2026, putting the state's top executive office back on the ballot and offering its own political possibilities. With DeSantis expected to consider another presidential run in 2028, Florida politicos say it may not be to his advantage to appoint himself to the Senate.

Another name being floated is Florida first lady Casey DeSantis, whose own political ambitions have long been a topic of speculation.

Speaking to students at Notre Dame the week before the Rubio pick was announced, DeSantis demurred when asked whether he would consider joining the new Trump administration.

"I'm not seeking anything," DeSantis said. "I've got a great job in the state of Florida.

"How can I best make a difference? I think, you know, given where we are, I think me quarterbacking the Sunshine State is probably how I make the biggest difference."

Other possible nominees include DeSantis' Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez — though she would be in line to become the state's first female governor if DeSantis nominated himself — or state Attorney General Ashley Moody.

Lara Trump lives in Palm Beach County with her husband Eric.

With a potential Trump pick, DeSantis could take the opportunity to curry favor with President-elect Trump after an icy relationship from 2020 until he suspended his primary challenge and endorsed Trump in 2024.

"I think it's all in the governor's hands," state Sen. Joe Gruters, a Trump ally and former chair of the Florida GOP. "But I think there’s obviously a lot of grassroots support for Lara Trump. And I hope that the governor would certainly give her consideration."

As far as filling the House seats, state officials have not yet announced the dates for a special election, apart from saying they want to move quickly.

"I've instructed Secretary of State Cord Byrd to formulate and announce a schedule for the upcoming special elections immediately," DeSantis posted on X last Thursday.

Byrd wrote on X his team is working on it and will have a schedule posted soon.

In announcing Gaetz's resignation Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., framed the move as a way to fill the vacancy quickly as Republicans work to leverage their hard-fought but thin majority next year.

Florida elections experts told The Associated Press the process will still likely take months, due to statutory requirements to publicize the elections, mail ballots to military and overseas voters and certify primary results — as well as the logistical challenges of carrying out another election right after a busy presidential cycle.

That could make the Republicans' thin House majority even thinner, at least for the first part of 2025.

"There is a bit of flexibility for a few of these things, but it seems like there's no practical way of having a replacement House member in less than half a year," said Michael Morley, an elections law expert and professor at Florida State University's College of Law.

The state's most recent special election to fill a U.S. House seat vacancy took 10 weeks between the primary election and the general alone, according to state records.

Information from The Associated Press was used to compile this report.