Republican Senate election efforts struggle under Florida’s Rick Scott
TALLAHASSEE — Stumbles by high-profile Republican U.S. Senate candidates are casting a cloud over the party’s chances of regaining control of the chamber this fall, heightening pressure on Florida Sen. Rick Scott, the man in charge of the takeover effort.
While President Joe Biden’s sinking approval numbers bolster GOP prospects of flipping the U.S. House in midterm elections, polls suggest the Senate is looking more likely to remain in Democratic hands.
Republican contenders are struggling in Georgia, New Hampshire, Nevada and Arizona, where Scott has promised victories.
For Scott, personally, a setback could be profound. Elected to the Senate in 2018 after two terms as Florida’s governor, Scott has seen his successor, Gov. Ron DeSantis, emerge as a Republican star, coming into even sharper focus as a likely 2024 White House contender.
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That’s a position many saw Scott coveting. Some also viewed him as possibly angling to wrest Republican leadership from Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell next year.
A Senate majority – and GOP hero status for Scott – is certainly within reach.
But failing to guide the party to a majority from his post as chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee would tarnish Scott, who has said little about his future, other than that he plans to run for re-election in two years.
“I don’t think Rick Scott has ever worried much about what critics say in terms of his future,” said Chris Hartline, a Scott spokesman. “His career has always been, do the job at hand and if you do that job well, there could be potential opportunities in the future.”
But his performance in the job of chair of the NRSC has drawn questions from fellow Republicans, and outright ridicule from Democrats.
“Rick Scott’s self-indulgent politics and his incompetence at the NRSC have been a gift to Senate Democrats this cycle,” said David Bergstein, spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
A new skill set
For Scott, traveling the country, raising money and schmoozing with candidates and donors is different. In two campaigns for governor, he narrowly won after spending more than $86 million of his own money.
In unseating three-term Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson in 2018, Scott largely financed his own campaign – spending $63.6 million of his own cash. With a net worth topping $200 million, Scott is the wealthiest member of the U.S. Senate – and House.
But as NRSC chair, Scott must be primarily a team player – not a self-funder.
Still, those who know him well warn that he shouldn’t be underestimated.
“He’s used to being an underdog, he’s a fighter,” said Melissa Sellers Stone, chief of staff when Scott was governor and his campaign manager in 2014.
“His ability to win and navigate through difficulties is unmatched. What he focuses on, he will be very successful at. And right now, he’s focused on victory in the Senate,” she added.
Potential problem: Rick Scott’s Rescue America plan
Scott is still trying to nuance his “Plan to Rescue America,” which was released in February as an 11-point summary of what his party stand for and immediately attacked by Democrats and even many fellow Republicans for demanding that all Americans pay federal income tax to exhibit they had “skin in the game.”
Biden ripped Scott for wanting to raise taxes on 75 million Americans.
But Republican McConnell may have had the most striking pushback, telling reporters, “We will not have as part of our agenda a bill that raises taxes on half the American people.”
Florida U.S. Senate Democratic candidate Val Demings, who is challenging Republican Marco Rubio in November, called the Scott proposal “toxic.”
Scott, though, had seen the plan as a needed blueprint for voters, part of the sales pitch to convince them to give Republicans control of the Senate. But last month, under steady criticism for the plan, he retooled the tax provision.
“Able-bodied Americans under 60, who do not have young children or incapacitated dependents, should work,” the reworked agenda said. “We need them pulling the wagon and paying taxes, not sitting at home taking money from the government.”
Scott also expanded the plan to 12-points, adding that it never intended to raise taxes but, rather, reduce taxes and make it harder for the federal government to boost them.
While the Rescue America plan may be proving more of an albatross than anything giving lift to Republican Senate chances, the candidates in key battleground states also haven’t exactly soared.
Republicans trailing in targeted states of Georgia, New Hampshire, Arizona and Nevada
The Real Clear Politics website poll average shows GOP candidates backed by Scott’s NRSC trailing Democratic incumbents in Georgia, New Hampshire, Arizona and Nevada, where some victories are needed for Republicans to have any chance of breaking the current, 50-50 deadlock that tilts Democratic with Vice President Kamala Harris casting a decisive vote as presiding officer.
The GOP needs to net only five seats in the House and one in the Senate to recapture control of Congress.
But five Republican senators are not seeking re-election, compared with only one Senate Democrat, adding to Scott’s challenge in trying to gain at least a 51-seat majority.
Historic trends are working against Democrats, with the party in the White House almost always losing seats during mid-term elections.
Biden’s unpopularity, rising inflation and a staggering economy are also hurting Democrats, although new surveys show that voter support for abortion rights and more gun restrictions are improving the party’s odds in Congress, with Election Day still four months away.
The NRSC is beating its Democratic counterpart in fundraising.. But with the roster of Republican Senate candidates coming under scrutiny, more attention is being trained on Scott’s recruiting effort.
Well-publicized missteps
Among the more publicized problems for the GOP: Georgia Republican nominee Herschel Walker has acknowledged being the father of three previously undisclosed children; Missouri GOP frontrunner Eric Greitens, is a former governor plagued by blackmail, sexual misconduct and child abuse scandals; and Pennsylvania nominee Dr. Mehmet Oz, is a celebrity doctor and favorite of former President Donald Trump, who won only after a recount.
Hartline, Scott’s spokesman, dismisses the dark polling numbers for the field, saying they come before voters have fully grasped they have a “binary choice between a Democrat and Republican candidate.”
“As advertising on our side picks up, we’ll continue to tie these incumbents and challengers to Joe Biden and to the agenda they support, 100% of the time,” Hartline said. “That gap is going to narrow and our opportunity to win will get even stronger.”
He insisted, “The fundamentals of the election are in our favor.”
Whatever the outcome, though, of Republican senate campaigns this year, Florida Republican Party Chair Joe Gruters forecast that Scott will remain a force in the Senate and in state politics.
His track record suggests that, he said.
“I think Sen. Scott will figure out a way to make it happen,” Gruters, also a state senator from Sarasota, said.
John Kennedy is a reporter in the USA TODAY Network’s Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at [email protected], or on Twitter at @JKennedyReport
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