Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday said he is likely to make a decision on who will fill Marco Rubio’s U.S. Senate seat by early January, saying his office has already begun vetting several possible candidates and will continue to do so over the coming weeks.
President-elect Donald Trump named Rubio as his pick for U.S. secretary of state last week, meaning the Miami native is likely to resign before Trump takes power on Jan. 20.
DeSantis said that his office has “already received strong interest from several possible candidates” but didn’t offer specifics about who may be seeking the Senate appointment. Still, a handful of contenders have been publicly floated among state and national Republicans in recent days, including Trump’s daughter-in-law, Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump.
Other possible choices include DeSantis’ chief of staff James Uthmeier, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, outgoing Florida House Speaker Paul Renner and former state House Speaker Jose Oliva.
“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,” DeSantis said in a post on X.
Florida law gives DeSantis the power to temporarily appoint someone to fill a Senate vacancy by picking a replacement who will hold the seat until the next regularly scheduled general election is held in 2026. The appointee would have to win again in 2028 to secure a full term.
Lara Trump, the wife of Trump’s second son Eric, has perhaps the most vocal support from the president-elect’s allies. U.S. Sen. Rick Scott of Florida publicly backed her for the job last week, echoing other steadfast Trump supporters in Congress, like U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Florida Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna.
Lara Trump has said that she’s open to taking Rubio’s seat if she’s asked to do so but that she hasn’t yet heard from DeSantis.
“If I were tapped for this, serving my home state, now, of Florida, it’s a great honor and a great responsibility, obviously, but I would love to be able to go forward and do more,” Lara Trump, a North Carolina native, told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo in an interview last week. Lara and Eric Trump now live in Jupiter, Florida.
Uthmeier, who is the governor’s chief of staff and was DeSantis’ presidential campaign manager, is also a name that has been floated. He has not yet publicly commented on whether he is interested in the job, but he is largely seen as a candidate who would be closer to DeSantis’ world over Trump’s orbit.
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