TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Florida’s Republican attorney general won’t fight a challenge to the state’s ban on openly carrying firearms, sidestepping a court fight in the nation’s third largest state.

Ashley Moody, who was first elected in 2018, has routinely sued President Joe Biden’s administration and publicly complained about authorities who refuse to follow the law. But her office turned down requests to represent a state prosecutor and a county sheriff who were the named defendants in a federal lawsuit brought by a gun rights organization that argues the ban violates the 2nd and 14th Amendment.

This means that Moody, a rumored candidate for governor in 2026, is skipping a potentially game-changing lawsuit that could result in guns being carried publicly in the tourist-dependent state.

The state attorney being sued in the lawsuit asked Buddy Jacobs — who has been a long-time lobbyist for the association that represents prosecutors — to represent him in the case after Moody’s office turned down a request to represent the prosecutor. Jacobs told POLITICO that Moody’s office also declined a request by the St. Lucie County sheriff to get involved in the case.

Kylie Mason, a spokesperson for Moody, would not say why the attorney general had declined to defend Florida’s open carry law. Mason only said in an email that “our office may become involved at a later stage.”