JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Reporters who don’t have much first-hand experience with Florida Senator Rick Scott are discounting his second bid for Senate Leadership.
He considered his lopsided loss to Mitch McConnell two years ago as evidence of Scott’s ceiling and not his floor – a 10-strong band willing to resist the hegemony of the RINO Republicans of Kentucky that allowed President Biden to spend freely in his first two years with the sanction of senators.
McConnell’s last two years have been instantly forgotten, a sepia-tinged Polaroid of stalemate and stale ideas. Republican politics—as usual. Democrat lite.
Voters proved Tuesday night they want something different. What Reagan called it in 1976 was “bold colors and no pastels.”
Donald Trump won a stunning mandate, sweeping all seven swing states and making gains in liberal strongholds, as he contrasted the sensibilities of the bleak Democratic managerial class in Kamala Harris’s hyperfunded but hypodynamic campaign.
A few months of condescension burned billions of dollars, but the light of burning money showed the 45th president the way back to Washington.
The rise and fall of Trump’s politics is not from the founders but from outsiders.
And the Senate leadership race now has two insiders — Johns Cornyn and Thune — and one genuine outsider in Rick Scott.
In 2010 when he was elected governor, he was not the choice of the establishment.
In 2014, polls said he would lose again.
In 2018, he had to dissolve Sen. Bill Nelson, spending big to win by little.
And in 2022, even before McConnell’s loss, the committee of the National Republican Senatorial Committee was on the rise, amid an unprepared-for-prime-time candidate that looked more like a cabinet of curiosities than a starting lineup.
But all the time he was playing the long game.
He did something as a gubernatorial candidate or leader who maintained conservative results for eight years with a controversial compromise — post-Parkland legislation that tightened various gun control requirements. Scott was part of a wave of governors that year who did just that, and the demand for the ban in Tallahassee was bipartisan that year.
And he did the same in the Senate, filing bills that went nowhere but made legislative priorities — legislation on the message at the time but leaving the impression of being unenforceable.
It’s unlikely that Scott will support Ron DeSantis for president, and Trump’s endorsement comes after it was clear that the former president would dominate any competition.
But the two have always been in lockstep, including in 2022 when Trump endorsed (for what it’s worth) Scott’s challenge to McConnell.
Scott is loyal to and, like Trump, indebted to Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. He also knows what is needed in the role of majority leader: a disciplined operation that can cross the finish line in a short period of time.
In Tallahassee, where he had a successful eight-year term as governor, the legislative session lasted only 60 days. Scott gets the idea of ​​aggressive action and a quick start, which will be needed to handle the judicial appointments and recess appointments for the Trump Cabinet, allowing his team to do meaningful work on Day 1.
The senator is in the heat of politics. After 14 years of close races, Scott won re-election by double digits against Democrats pollsters say were running closer.
And part of why they inspire personal loyalty. His staff remained, and state Republicans in Florida (with the exception noted above) paid tribute.
He knows he is disciplined, focused and a good choice to ensure Trump’s agenda is delivered rather than delayed.
endorsements have come through fast and furious now, and Trump supporters should hope it’s a sign of inevitability. Another option is to go slow on what you choose, in a quintessentially Washington way.
