This is an editorial, the opinion of Florida Man News Network. It is separate from our news reporting.
Ashley Moody won tonight. The AP and NBC News called Florida's U.S. Senate special election for her over Democrat Angie Nixon. For the first time, Florida voters actually chose her for the seat Ron DeSantis handed her in January 2025. (We made our case against her on Sunday: Nobody Elected Ashley Moody. Florida, Fire Her.)
So let's be clear about what Florida just signed off on.
The $10 million
In 2024, Centene, Florida's largest Medicaid contractor, settled claims that it had overbilled the state's Medicaid program for prescription drugs. Emails show Centene first offered the state $67 million with no strings attached, WLRN and PolitiFact reported. Then, after a briefing at the governor's office, the state asked Centene to redirect $5 million as a "donation" to the Hope Florida Foundation, the charity tied to First Lady Casey DeSantis. Later it raised that to $10 million.
Moody was attorney general. Her office approved the settlement. PolitiFact found the agreement put no limits on how the $10 million could be used. The Hope Florida Foundation then gave the $10 million to two nonprofits working to defeat Amendment 3, the 2024 recreational marijuana measure. That's Medicaid settlement money ending up in politics.
A Leon County grand jury looked at it. Its report, leaked to CBS News Miami in August, found that the $10 million was "misappropriated" as part of "a sophisticated scheme to fund political activities." It found Moody knew about the plan to send the money to Hope Florida and authorized her chief deputy, John Guard, to sign the agreement.
In fairness, and because you should know: the grand jury recommended no charges, and an appeals court has since ordered the report stricken from the public record. PolitiFact says the extent of Moody's personal involvement isn't clear from available documents, and that claims she personally "stole" the money haven't been substantiated. Her campaign said the appeals court ruling "speaks for itself," and Moody called the insinuations "totally political."
Here's what isn't in dispute. Centene's lawyers insisted the attorney general be part of the deal because it was so unusual, a University of Central Florida political scientist told PolitiFact. Moody was the state's chief legal officer. If she had objected, he said, the deal wouldn't have happened. She didn't object. She signed off, through her deputy, on sending Medicaid settlement money to a charity with no rules. Then she spent a whole campaign refusing to debate and refusing to explain it.
When DeSantis appointed her to the Senate, he praised her for helping defeat Amendments 3 and 4, CBS Miami reported. The $10 million went to the campaign against Amendment 3.
The sick kids
Medicaid money isn't abstract in Florida. It's how millions of children see a doctor.
About 700,000 children were dropped from Florida Medicaid between March 2023 and June 2025 during the post-pandemic "unwinding," according to KFF data. That's nearly a quarter of all enrolled kids and one of the steepest drops in the country.
Florida is the only state in the nation removing children from KidCare, its low-cost children's health program, over missed premium payments. It removed about 43,000 kids from December 2024 to November 2025, PolitiFact confirmed.
More than 42,000 children are still waiting for a KidCare expansion the Legislature passed two years ago. Advocates are suing the state to make it happen, Central Florida Public Media reported.
Florida's child uninsured rate rose from 7.4% to 8.5% between 2022 and 2024. That's about 67,000 more uninsured kids, ranking Florida 46th in the nation, according to Census data analyzed by Georgetown.
Then Moody went to Washington and made it worse.
She voted for H.R. 1, the 2025 "One Big Beautiful Bill," which is projected to cut nearly $1 trillion from federal Medicaid over a decade. KFF projects about 590,000 more uninsured Floridians by 2034 from that law alone. Her own press release bragged about tax cuts and never mentioned Medicaid.
She voted against extending the enhanced ACA tax credits. After they expired, more than 440,000 Floridians dropped marketplace coverage, the biggest drop in the nation.
The KidCare purges and the stalled expansion belong to the DeSantis administration, not to Moody's Senate office. But this is one machine. The same administration steered the $10 million. The same governor handed Moody the Senate seat. And the senator he picked voted to shrink the program those children depend on.
So how does Florida turn its back on sick children?
The same way it just did. Quietly. One stalled program, one missed premium notice, one "donation" clause in a settlement, one roll call vote at a time. Then on Election Day, the people responsible ask for your vote, and they get it, because the kids who lost coverage can't vote and their parents are working two jobs.
Moody never debated. She rarely took questions. She ran on "freedom or socialism" and flooded the airwaves with money, and it worked.
What happens now
Moody's term runs through January 2029. Every vote she casts on Medicaid, children's health coverage and the ACA goes in the record. FMNN is adding her to our accountability coverage alongside The Donalds Watch:
Every Medicaid, CHIP/KidCare and ACA vote she casts, logged with the date and the roll call.
Any new development on Hope Florida: court rulings, records releases, investigations.
Florida's children's Medicaid and KidCare enrollment, every quarter.
Florida rewarded her tonight. The record doesn't forget, and neither do we.
Florida Man News Network editorial board.