New Ohio and Florida Senate-appointees sworn in as Vance and Rubio’s replacements

Sens. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., and Jon Husted, R-Ohio, were sworn in on Tuesday following the resignations of both Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance. 

With the two new senators, Republicans officially have 53 members in their Senate conference. 

Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., recently announced Moody to be the next senator from Florida, taking over Rubio’s seat. She was the state’s attorney general prior. 

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Two new Republican senators were sworn in on Tuesday. (Reuters)

Shortly after DeSantis made his pick, Gov. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, revealed his choice of his then-Lt. Gov. Jon Husted to replace Vance.

The final breakdown in the upper chamber is 53 Republicans and 47 senators in the Democratic caucus. 

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Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody responds to cheering supporters after Gov. Ron DeSantis, left, announced her appointment as U.S. senator to replace Marco Rubio, during a news conference at the Rosen Plaza Hotel in Orlando, Florida, on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025.  (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

While the GOP has a several seat majority, they will need the assistance of some Democrats to defeat the legislative filibuster’s 60-vote threshold to consider most legislation. 

However, on nominations and budget reconciliation, that threshold is lowered to 51. 

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Ohio Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted, right, speaks beside Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine during a news conference on June 2, 2022, in Avon Lake, Ohio. DeWine and Husted have been drawn into a FirstEnergy Corp. investors lawsuit connected to the $60 million bribery scheme concocted by the energy giant and a now-incarcerated House speaker. (AP Photo/David Richard, File)

“Thank you so much. I will bring the same persistence and passion and tenacity as a United States senator that I have brought as Florida’s Attorney General,” Moody said after accepting DeSantis’s appointment. 

“If you have worked with me and fought with me over the last six years, you know, I don’t think of this as a job. I think of it as a calling,” she added. 

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The Capitol is seen under cloud cover in Washington, Tuesday, May 11, 2021. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) . (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

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Following DeWine’s announcement, Husted said, “Governor, I just want to say thank you. It is my honor to accept the appointment to serve the people of the state of Ohio in the U.S. Senate. I just appreciate that you have placed so much trust in me. First as a running mate, and then as lieutenant governor, and now as your appointee to the Senate.”