DeSantis sets timetable for naming Rubio Senate successor amid calls for a Trump to fill the seat

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says he is likely to make a decision on who will fill Sen. Marco Rubio’s U.S. Senate seat by early January, emphasizing that the governor’s office has already begun vetting several possible candidates 

President-elect Donald Trump officially announced last week that he would nominate Rubio, the three-term senator from Florida and a senior Republican member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Intelligence committees, to serve as secretary of state in his incoming administration.

“Senator 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 statement Monday morning.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he will likely name a replacement by early January to fill the seat of Sen. Marco Rubio, whom President-elect Donald Trump is nominating as secretary of state. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

The governor highlighted that “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.”

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The statement from Florida’s two-term conservative Republican governor comes as some key Trump allies have recommended that Lara Trump, Republican National Committee co-chair and the president-elect’s daughter-in-law, be named by DeSantis to fill Rubio’s seat for the next two years.

Among those who have touted Lara Trump over the past couple of days include Florida’s other GOP member of the U.S. Senate – Sen. Rick Scott – Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Katie Britt of Alabama, as well as Rep. Anna Paulina Lune of Florida.

Lara Trump, the daughter-in-law of former President Donald Trump, speaks to the media following a Trump rally in North Charleston, South Carolina, on Feb. 21, 2024. (Brandon Gillespie/Fox News)

DeSantis, a one-time Trump ally who clashed with the former president last year and early this year during a very contentious 2024 GOP presidential nomination race, mended relations a bit with the former president after the primary season, as he endorsed Trump and helped raise money for the Republican nominee’s general election campaign.

“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 his statement.

Amid the calls for Lara Trump to be named to fill Rubio’s seat, the statement by DeSantis can be seen as a signal that he would not be rushed into making any hasty decision.

Former President Donald Trump, left, greets Florida Sen. Marco Rubio during a campaign rally at the J.S. Dorton Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Nov. 4, 2024. (Photo by Ryan M. Kelly / AFP)

A source in DeSantis’ political orbit simply said that “the statement speaks for itself.”

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The governor, according to Florida law, has the power to temporarily appoint someone to fill the vacant Senate seat until the next regularly scheduled general election, which will be held in 2026.

Other names floated to replace Rubio include DeSantis’s chief of staff James Uthmeier, Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez and state Attorney General Ashley Moody, outgoing Florida House Speaker Paul Renner and former state House Speaker Jose Oliva.