Florida GOP Sen. Rick Scott charts contrarian path to long term political endeavors

Sarah Westwood

July 04, 05:30 AM July 04, 05:31 AM

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) has managed some unusual feats. He’s been accused by Senate GOP leadership of hurting the party’s possibilities in the midterm elections while at the very same time presiding around a campaign fundraising haul for the social gathering so substantial that management has no option but to rejoice it.

He’s united Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and President Joe Biden in opposition to his agenda.

And the previous Florida governor and present chairman of the Nationwide Republican Senatorial Committee has labored to situation himself as an outsider that would presumably accompany an final insider.

SENATE REPUBLICANS Demand YELLEN Deliver TREASURY Paperwork Relevant TO INFLATION

Scott’s specific options for the future continue being unclear. Some Republicans and analysts feel he is angling to come to be the Senate Republican chief following McConnell, when some others assume he is location his sights even better, seeking in advance to 2024.

What is very clear is that Scott has taken controversial methods in an energy to crack through an ever more crowded selection of soaring GOP stars.

“I consider it is [a] leap ball in 2024,” Eric Fehrnstrom, GOP strategist and former senior aide to Sen. Mitt Romney’s (R-UT) 2012 presidential campaign, instructed the Washington Examiner. “It will be a crowded subject, and nobody can claim an edge at this incredibly early phase.”

Prior to successful Florida's governorship in 2010, Scott was a health care govt. He's now one particular of the Senate's wealthier users and has often talked about his organization track record and how governing administration ought to operate equally.

“What Rick Scott delivers to the contest is a business enterprise history when the overall economy will possibly keep on being a central issue, as well as the govt leadership expertise that arrives from being a previous governor,” Fehrnstrom included. “That will be much more critical in the minds of voters than the time he has expended as senator, though his service as NRSC chair in this present cycle allows him to travel to early states, fulfill with significant donors, and introduce himself to the activist foundation.”

But Scott's financial prescription for those people who receive really very little is what positioned him at odds with GOP leadership and Democrats alike earlier this 12 months when he introduced an 11-point coverage agenda that bundled, amongst other things, a proposal to enhance the federal tax legal responsibility of persons on the reduced conclusion of the income spectrum.

The “Plan to Rescue America” gained Scott general public and private rebukes, some from Republicans who complained Scott experienced presented Democrats anything on which to run in opposition to the GOP in November.

“I hope they do,” Scott claimed defiantly at a Heritage Basis occasion in late March, months right after he penned an op-ed responding to criticism of his system that was not-so-subtly titled “Why I’m Defying Beltway Cowardice.”

Though the fears that Scott’s approach would outline Democratic opposition seem to be to have ebbed as the dust-up pale from headlines, some Republican operatives haven’t forgotten the sting.

“It’s just not good politics,” explained one GOP operative associated in Florida politics who declined to be named because of to existing consumers.

He attributed the circumstance to Scott’s relative inexperience on the countrywide stage.

“These are just rookie mistakes,” he said.

Aides who have labored for Scott in the course of his a lot more than 10 a long time in politics have a deep perception of loyalty to him thanks to the form of contemplating that led the Florida Republican to set out the program in the initially place, said Chris Hartline, spokesman for Scott’s political procedure.

“I feel if you abide by his profession carefully, when he expended eight several years as governor of Florida, he was by no means the favored of people in Tallahassee,” Hartline told the Washington Examiner.

“He often did stuff his individual way,” Hartline said. “He’s not the kind of individual, in whatever position that he has … who changes the way he thinks about factors primarily based on the political pressures that exist.”

Some of the problems about how Scott has gone about burnishing his conservative credentials have targeted on his function as leader of the NRSC.

Critics have accused Scott of applying his publish to promote his own picture and to steer resources to his political operation as he raises piles of money for GOP Senate incumbents and hopefuls — he raked in an eye-popping $43 million in the initial quarter of the yr.

Grant Reeher, a political science professor at Syracuse University, said Scott’s multitasking in the part is significantly less unheard of in today’s political landscape.

“I never feel it’s as unusual to do anything like that as it would have been 15, 20 many years in the past,” Reeher mentioned. “I just think there is kind of a new standard about political ambition and how men and women assert on their own.”

Scott’s political ambitions could operate him into conflict with a amount of other Republicans who could be planning presidential operates in the up coming two a long time.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) met Monday with major Republican donors in Manhattan. Previous Secretary of Point out Mike Pompeo has consistently traveled to important principal states this year, and his political action committee went up this 7 days with a electronic advertisement buy in Iowa and South Carolina, two early major states. Sen. Tom Cotton (AR) offered an outline of his marketing campaign system to donors in Washington, D.C., before this thirty day period.

But if Scott’s ambitions are in fact presidential, his hardest opponent — past former President Donald Trump, whose 2024 intentions continue being unknown — could be an individual close to property.

“The hard spot for Scott is the point that a common governor from his point out also could be looking for the nomination, and historically, the voters favors governors more than legislators,” Brad Blakeman, a Republican strategist and former senior aide to President George W. Bush, told the Washington Examiner. “To have two sitting down statewide candidates go versus each individual other for the nomination will be challenging for both equally.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis (FL) has rocketed to GOP stardom above the past two several years, in significant aspect simply because of his defiant handling of the pandemic.

But DeSantis has also waded deeper into lifestyle war troubles than Scott, whose splashiest moves have focused on the economic climate. That method from DeSantis has him climbing nearer to Trump in polling of hypothetical presidential main matchups.

With issues these types of as racialized classroom curriculum and abortion attracting a great deal of the energy in the celebration, Scott’s final decision to focus much more on Social Protection reform — he would like to demand Congress to audit and renew the program each individual five yrs — is a throwback to a time right before Trump scrambled the party’s priorities.

“Sometimes there’s a crowd of people today with 1 information, and you can distinguish you with a distinct concept and consolidate a faction in just the social gathering and get quite considerably in presidential elections, even if a vast majority of the voters are supporting an individual else,” explained David Hopkins, a political science professor at Boston University.

“Twenty or thirty % can get you very considerably in the to start with states,” he additional.

Scott’s sights may possibly be set on a diverse task, having said that.

As Republicans prepare for the extremely authentic chance of taking about the Senate future 12 months, Scott could be positioning himself to try out to direct a Senate greater part in a additional conservative direction than McConnell.

“McConnell’s not heading to be there endlessly,” stated John Feehery, a veteran Republican strategist. “So I believe he’s hoping to position himself as not functioning essentially from McConnell, but also not automatically being a McConnell particular person.”