Ashley Moody attacked in new ad over FEMA funding vote

With days left before the official end of the North Atlantic Ocean’s hurricane season, a new YouTube ad from an anti-Ashley Moody PAC says the U.S. Senator voted against the interests of Floridians.

“It’s hurricane season, and Floridians are drowning in the highest insurance rates in America. While our families struggle, Ashley Moody sided with Trump in the GOP to defund FEMA, the National Weather Service, and disaster aid. She works for them, not for us,” says the YouTube short from the Out of the Swamp PAC.

It’s unclear who is funding this ad, which was first shared with POLITICO Florida Playbook. The Federal Election Commission shows no financial activity yet for the political action committee.

While Florida appears to have avoided tropical impacts in 2025, a welcome break from recent years, the messaging looks to capitalize on fears that insurance costs continue to escalate while leaders in Washington leave them exposed to peril.

Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Moody this year after former U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio resigned to become Secretary of State.

While she was Florida’s Attorney General, Moody was one of many prominent Florida Republicans exercised about FEMA’s apparent unwillingness during Joe Biden’s presidency to provide support to those who advertised supporting then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. She accused the agency of “political discrimination.”

The new ad comes as state officials say Florida’s once-faltering insurance market is recovering.

Commissioner Michael Yaworsky told the House Insurance and Banking Subcommittee this week that nearly 1.6 million policies have recently been taken from Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, reducing the load to 516,000 as of September. Yaworsky said rates overall are on a “negative glide path,” with a 0.8% increase over the last year “that was the lowest increase in the country compared to other states.”

Moody appears to be on a glide path of her own to be nominated by her party, and is also the heavy favorite to win election next year.

Recent polling from University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Research Lab (PORL) shows the Plant City Republican holding a decisive advantage over likely Democratic challenger Jennifer Jenkins, a former Brevard County School Board member, in what could be one of Florida’s marquee statewide contests in 2026.

Moody commands majority support with 49% of likely voters backing her, compared to 38% for Jenkins. Thirteen percent of respondents remain undecided.