“We have to focus on winning” the Senate, Scott told Trump. “My only goal is to win.”
Florida’s governor-turned-senator is navigating treacherous terrain, and not just because of the Senate midterms landscape. He is trying to balance working with the two most powerful figures in the GOP, McConnell and Trump, who also despise each other.
But Scott’s situation also underscores his growing value in the game. The ambitious former businessman is seen as a possible presidential contender or, more recently, in some Trump circles, as an obscure candidate for leadership one day.
This week only cemented speculation about the latest: Scott, 69, made waves – and angered some McConnell allies – when he objected to the Republican leader’s decision not to present a political agenda for the campaign and instead launched his own. While McConnell wanted the election to be a referendum on the will of President Joe Biden unpopularity, inflation and other Democratic failures, Scott unilaterally decided that the Republicans should also declare what they are for.
His list of red meat proposals touched on issues ranging from term limits and ending Trump’s border wall to nationwide voter ID laws and banning transgender athletes from female sports.
Scott’s move opened up a rare tactical divide between McConnell and the man leading the party’s efforts to win the Senate. But despite internal criticism from some in his own party, Scott is not softening his platform. He is spending seven figures from his own campaign account to promote it, starting Friday. This weekend, he will promote his proposals at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
Scott and McConnell have a professional relationship, but have never been close. In fact, there were many concerns among McConnell’s allies about Scott’s decision to bring in his own people to run the NRSC rather than rely on those who had worked in that world before.
There was also concern that his objections to the January 6 Electoral College results could repel donors, although Scott managed to raise record sums of money.
Scott has kept Trump close where McConnell hasn’t: While Trump attacked McConnell for saying the then-president incited a riot on Capitol Hill, the NRSC chairman presented the former president with the committee’s “Champion of Freedom Award” in April. That made eyes roll even among some Republicans. However, others in the Republican Party saw it as a boon to Scott’s future political ambitions.
Scott, a self-made politician who has gotten to where he is almost on his own, has always irked the establishment. Former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour and the Republican Governors Association openly endorsed his main opponent for Florida governor in 2010, one of the reasons Scott refuses to enter the Republican primary to this day. Then, in 2018, the NRSC refused to help Scott in his campaign to unseat then-Democratic Senator Bill Nelson, telling him he had the bandwidth to raise money or fund himself. Scott won by 10,000 votes.
As a result, Scott has always followed his own advice. As governor, he vowed to stop the political back scratching in Tallahassee that his Republican predecessors had embraced. Instead, he posted announcements in the districts of state officials whose support he needed to pass his agenda.
He has a similar reputation in Washington as a somewhat stubborn loner. As he gave McConnell and RNC President Ronna McDaniel notice before revealing his midterm platform, he did not ask their permission, let alone consult with anyone in the party leadership, we are told.
“Rick Scott doesn’t give a fuck what the world thinks of McConnell,” said a senior Republican official who isn’t on either side but has closely watched the tug-of-war between them.
Scott’s spokesman, Chris Hartline, had a different take, one that McConnell’s team also endorsed: “Chairman Scott and Leader McConnell are working hand-in-hand to win back the Senate in November.”
Scott’s political platform gambit has dominated the conversation among DC Republicans this week. There are two conflicting views of what he did:
His skeptics say he is putting his own political ambitions ahead of his mandate to capture the Senate. The argument is that his midterm agenda works very well among the rank and file, but at the risk of alienating the independent voters needed to change the chamber. McConnell has a history of winning campaigns, they add, and Scott should follow his example.
Critics also point out that Scott’s platform gave Democrats new ammunition to attack the GOP. One of the planks would require all Americans to pay taxes, when currently about half of them, mainly low-income people and seniors, do not. Democrats are having a field day labeling the plan a tax increase. And many prominent Republicans have either distanced themselves from her or have been outspoken critics of that proposal, as POLITICO reported this week, including even longtime advisers to anti-tax king Grover Norquist.
McConnell’s office declined to comment on whether the leader supports Scott’s agenda.
Scott’s allies maintain that this has nothing to do with ambition and everything to do with winning. McConnell may know about the election, but he is neither popular nor has his finger on the pulse of grassroots voters.
Scott has also had a tremendous amount of face-to-face time with a new cadre of post-Trump donors during his travels as head of the NRSC. His associates say that Scott knows his way of thinking better than McConnell.
Those who agree with his decision to come up with an agenda, a group that includes top RNC officials, say GOP donors and voters are eager for a forward-looking agenda setting out what Republicans will do if they win. . There is concern about a repeat of 2017, when Republicans, after repealing Obamacare, had essentially no plan to deliver on that promise.
Also, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is planning to put out his own midterm schedule. Why, Scott supporters say, shouldn’t Senate Republicans do the same?
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