Ashley Moody

Ashley Brooke Moody (born March 28, 1975) is an American attorney and politician serving as the Florida attorney general since January 2019. Moody previously served as an assistant U.S. attorney and a circuit court judge in Hillsborough County.

During her tenure as Florida attorney general, Moody has supported lawsuits to invalidate the Affordable Care Act, advocated against restoration of voting rights for former felons, and opposed the legalization of recreational marijuana. Moody was a significant surrogate of then-President Donald Trump in Florida during the 2020 presidential election, and joined in the Texas v. Pennsylvania lawsuit, which sought to overturn the results of the election.

Early life and education
Moody was born in Plant City, Florida, on March 28, 1975. She is the oldest of three children born to Carol and Judge James S. Moody Jr.

Moody graduated from Plant City High School in 1993. She received a bachelor's degree and master's degree in accounting from University of Florida. While attending the University of Florida, she served as president of Florida Blue Key. Moody earned a Master of Laws in international law from Stetson University College of Law, and her Juris Doctor from the University of Florida School of Law.

Early career
Moody interned for Martha Barnett, the president of the American Bar Association, and later joined the law firm Holland & Knight, working in civil litigation.

In January 1998, Moody switched her party affiliation from Democratic to Republican. Upon his election, Florida governor Jeb Bush appointed her to be the student representative on the Board of Regents, a now-defunct body that ran the state's university system.

Moody was appointed an assistant U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Florida. In 2006, Moody was elected to the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida, which consisted of Hillsborough County.

Elections
On April 28, 2017, Moody resigned from the court to run for Florida Attorney General in the 2018 election. In the Republican primary, Moody defeated state representative Frank White, who attacked Moody for her prior registration as a Democrat. In the general election, Moody defeated Democratic nominee Sean Shaw, a state representative, with 52% of the vote to Shaw's 46%.

Moody was reelected in the 2022 election against Democratic nominee Aramis Ayala, winning by a margin of approximately 20%.

Health care
Moody kept Florida in a lawsuit that seeks to have the Affordable Care Act deemed unconstitutional.

Michael Flynn
In May 2020, Moody urged the federal government to drop its case against Trump associate Michael Flynn who had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

Marijuana
Moody argued for the disqualification of a 2022 ballot measure to legalize recreational cannabis in Florida, contending that the proposed amendment was misleading because the summary (which could not be longer than 75 words) did not clarify that cannabis would remain illegal under federal law. The Supreme Court of Florida agreed in a 5–2 ruling in April 2021, effectively killing the initiative which had already received 556,049 valid signatures of 891,589 required to appear on the ballot. Two months later, in June 2021, the court granted Moody's request that a second ballot measure to legalize recreational cannabis be disqualified from the 2022 ballot, in another 5–2 ruling that deemed the measure "affirmatively misleading".

In June 2023, Moody argued for the disqualification of a 2024 ballot measure to legalize recreational cannabis in Florida, filing a 49-page legal brief that asserted once again that the summary failed to make clear that cannabis would remain illegal under federal law, among other arguments put forth in the brief. The challenge sought to strike down the initiative which had received 967,528 of a required 891,523 valid signatures to appear on the ballot. The Florida Supreme Court ruled in April 2024 in a 5–2 ruling against Moody that the initiative would remain on the ballot.

Voting rights
Moody opposes the restoration of voting rights for former felons. Following the passing of Voting Rights Restoration for Felons Initiative in 2018, Moody, along with Governor Ron DeSantis, helped push a bill through the Florida Senate that would only restore voting rights to eligible felons once the felon has paid all of their court fees. In September 2020, after billionaire Michael Bloomberg raised $16 million to pay 32,000 felons' court fees, which would make them eligible to vote in the 2020 elections, Moody asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate Bloomberg, claiming he potentially violated election laws.

2020 presidential election
During the 2020 presidential election, Politico described Moody as "one of Donald Trump's biggest surrogates" in Florida. After Joe Biden won the election and Trump refused to concede, Moody took a leading role in aiding Trump's attempts to overturn the election.

On December 9, 2020, Moody and 15 other state attorneys general announced their support for a lawsuit by Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, asking the Supreme Court of the United States to invalidate the presidential election results in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, which were all won by Biden. There was no evidence of large-scale fraud in the election, and the court decided 7-2 not to hear the Texas lawsuit.

Moody was on the board of directors for the Rule of Law Defense Fund. In January 2021, the organization encouraged the gathering at the Capitol building to call for a halt on the counting of the Electoral College ballots, which they contended were fraudulent. After the pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, Moody removed any references to the Rule of Law Defense Fund from her online biography.

COVID-19 pandemic
In 2021, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Moody sued the federal government and the CDC for instituting requirements that cruise ships require 95% of cruise passengers to be fully vaccinated to sail.

Abortion Rights initiative
Although nearly a million Floridians, 76% of them women, signed petitions to certify a 2024 ballot measure which would preserve and expand abortion rights, Moody petitioned to the state Supreme Court in January  to keep state voters from being able to vote in its favor, claiming its language could mislead voters. Hundreds of Florida Republicans donated to help finance the initiative campaign.

Personal life
Moody is married to Justin Duralia, a Drug Enforcement Administration special agent. They have two sons together. Their elder son is serving in the United States Army.