Republican Ashley Moody wins Florida's Senate race, the AP reports

The Associated Press called Florida's U.S. Senate special election for Republican Ashley Moody on Tuesday evening, saying she defeated Democrat Angie Nixon. The call means Democrats did not win the seat, according to the AP.

Election-night returns showed Moody ahead. Fox News' results page showed her with 50.6% of the vote, or 4,028,060 votes, to 48.2% for Nixon, or 3,834,136 votes. The snapshot does not establish exactly when those totals were reached.

Moody was appointed in 2025 to the seat after Marco Rubio became secretary of state. Nixon, a Democratic state representative, won her party's August primary in an upset over Alexander Vindman. Before the general election, Moody had consistently led in polling, and the contest was widely viewed as favorable to Republicans, The Washington Post reported.

The AP's call is the only one confirmed so far. A formal result for the race depends on calls from Fox News and NBC, which were not confirmed in the sources reviewed. The race is settled for the purposes of a formal result once the AP, Fox News and NBC all name the same winner. If they do not, official certification would decide it.

The seat is one of several Senate contests being watched across the country on election night, including races in Ohio, Kansas, Maine, Montana and Nebraska.

What comes next is straightforward. Fox News and NBC are expected to weigh in with their own calls as more votes are counted, and state officials will then move toward certifying the final tally. Until then, the AP's call stands as the main public word on who won Florida's Senate seat.