Florida Sen. Rick Scott on Sunday pitched himself as the candidate in the Senate GOP leadership race who will break the status quo and best fight to implement President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda.
The GOPer implied that the Senate Republican Conference hasn’t always done the best job of representing party members across the country.
“We have a mandate for change,” Scott told “Sunday Morning Futures,” referring to the 2024 election results. “I have talked to my colleagues. I think everybody realizes we need to make a change.
“I’m running to change. We have got to have a big change,” he said. “With almost $36 trillion of debt, 100,000 people dying of fentanyl or drug overdoses, open border, woke military. We have got to change the way the Senate is run to get Trump’s agenda done.”
Senate Republicans are scheduled to hold their internal election Wednesday to crown a new leader. Scott is competing against Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SC) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who previously served as whip.
Both Thune and Cornyn are generally perceived as being in line with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), whom Scott challenged unsuccessfully for the position in November 2022.
During the first Trump administration and in subsequent years, the Republican-led Senate had generally been seen as less in lockstep with the soon-to-be 47th president than its counterparts in the House of Representatives.
One reason for this has been that Republicans in the upper chamber have been led by McConnell, who hews from the more traditional wing of the party.
McConnell and Trump have feuded in the past, with the president-elect at times hurling racially tinged attacks on the Kentucky sage’s wife Elaine Chao, who was his transportation secretary.
The Kentucky senator, who has led the GOP in the Senate since 2007, rendering him the longest Senate leader of any party in US history, announced in February that he would step down from the post this month.
Scott underscored that he believes it is possible to wrangle Trump’s ambitious agenda through the Senate despite procedural limitations, namely the filibuster, which requires a 60-vote threshold to overcome to pass most types of legislation there.
“We can balance the budget. We can build a better military. We can make sure that we secure this border. We can make sure we stop all these drugs from coming in and so many of our family and friends dying of drug overdose. All these things we’re doing, we can protect Medicare. We can protect Social Security,” Scott insisted.
Scott had previously served as governor of Florida from 2011 to 2019. Helping him win his first term as governor was veteran operative Susie Wiles, whom Trump later tapped as his 2024 campaign co-chair and has announced as his pick for White House Chief of Staff.
The former governor has previously been dubbed a long-shot candidate when trying to take the helm of the GOP in the Senate because has racked up rivals in the chamber.
Some Senate Republicans also privately groused about his leadership of the National Republican Senatorial Committee during the 2022 midterm elections in which the party lost ground in what had been expected to be a red-wave year.
Most Republican senators have been quiet about whom they are backing in the latest leadership contest.
But Scott’s candidacy has earned at least more public support than his rivals, particularly from allies of Trump.
“I will be voting for my Florida colleague @ScottforFlorida to be our next Senate GOP leader,” fellow Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R) said Sunday.
Other pols backing Scott include Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.)
Prominent MAGA darlings such as conservative pundit Tucker Carlson, Robert Kennedy Jr., and conservative commentator Charlie Kirk have backed Scott for the post as well.
Trump has stayed mum on whom he is backing, but he made one prerequisite known Sunday: He wants whoever gets the position to give him the ability to make appointments even when the Senate is on recess.
The Senate has traditionally blocked presidents from making those appointments during its recesses.
“Any Republican Senator seeking the coveted LEADERSHIP position in the United States Senate must agree to Recess Appointments (in the Senate!), without which we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner,” Trump wrote on social media.
Scott promptly endorsed Trump’s request, writing on X, “100% agree.”
The Sunshine State Republican also made clear that he believes Trump can complete much of his legislative agenda without the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome the filibuster. One exception, however, is his plans on tariffs.
“That most likely is going to require 60, unless there’s some way we can get that done through reconciliation with 51,” Scott said Sunday.
Republicans are expected to gain a 53-seat Senate majority, although there is some controversy about the Pennsylvania race. To bypass the filibuster threshold, Senate Republicans can try a process known as reconciliation to pass a limited amount of legislation related to budget items.
“I have got a great working relationship with Mike Johnson,” Scott added of his bid for Senate GOP leader, referring to the Republican House speaker.
