Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) is seen as the early underdog in the race to succeed Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.) as Senate GOP leader, but he’s touting something that sets him apart from his two rivals: a close personal relationship with former President Trump.
Senate insiders say Scott doesn’t have much of a chance of being elected leader if Trump loses to President Biden in November, but if Trump wins a second term, Scott would have a powerful argument to make to colleagues that he would have a direct line to the president.
“I have known President Trump since before either of us ran for any political office,” Scott told GOP colleagues in a letter Wednesday.
He traveled to New York last week to support Trump at his hush-money trial in Manhattan, and was the first Republican member of Congress to do so. He also spoke to Trump directly before announcing his leadership bid.
Scott told Fox News that Trump told him he’s “excited” about his leadership bid.
“We need a sea change. I talked to Trump about this today. He said he’s excited I’m getting into the race,” he said. “We’re going to change the Senate. And we’re going to be the Senate that helps Donald Trump get his conservative agenda done.”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), one of Trump’s closest allies in the Senate, noted that Trump’s “around Rick all the time, being from Florida.”
And he pointed out that senior Trump campaign adviser Susie Wiles used to work closely with Scott and helped elect him as governor of Florida.
But Tuberville expressed doubt that Trump will intervene in the race.
“I don’t think the president’s going to take a side, to be honest with you. I really don’t. I know [Trump’s] spoken to Thune and Cornyn,” he said. “I don’t think he should step into it. We’re a different group.”
Scott’s rivals for the top Senate GOP leadership job, Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) and John Cornyn (Texas), also reached out to Trump before announcing their plans to run.
But they also have a history of pushing back on some of Trump’s more provocative statements and questioning his electability, especially his appeal to independent and swing voters.
Scott has displayed unwavering loyalty to Trump since coming to the Senate in 2019 and even presented him with a “Champion of Freedom” award on behalf of the National Republican Senatorial Committee when he chaired it in 2021, the first of its kind he bestowed on anybody.
The closest Scott came to diverging with Trump in his Senate career was to urge him to attend Biden’s inauguration in January of 2021.
Both Thune and Cornyn have stressed their record of enacting Trump’s agenda as Senate GOP whips.
Cornyn held the whip’s job during Trump’s first two years in office, helping to enact the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and confirm conservative Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
Thune took over in 2019 and helped Trump pass landmark COVID-19 relief and confirm conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
Thune and Cornyn said Scott’s entry into the race wasn’t a surprise.
“He’s talked about it. Again, it’s an open race. Anybody who wants to run is entitled to run. As we all know, it’s a small constituency, it’s 49 people. We hope [it’s] a few more after this next election, but we all have to go out and make our case to our voters, to our colleagues,” Thune said.
Asked if a Trump victory would put Scott in a better position to win the race, Thune said, “I don’t know the answer to that.”
“We’ll see what happens with the fall elections. All I know is who the voters are, and we have to do everything we can to earn their vote and win them over. I think that they’re going to make that decision predicated upon who they think is going to be the best leader for the conference,” he said.
Cornyn on Thursday wasn’t buying the notion that Scott will be the Trump candidate.
“My experience is these races are the ultimate insider race because it’s built on trust and relationships within the conference, so I don’t expect this to be any different,” he said.
Both Thune and Cornyn have pledged to collaborate closely with Trump if he returns to the White House, something many Republican senators want to see after years of feuding between Trump and McConnell.
While Trump may not step in to tilt the leadership race toward one candidate or another, Trump’s relationship with a prospective leader could be an important factor in how some Republican senators vote — especially incoming first-term senators or more newly elected members who are more MAGA-aligned.
“I think we need to come together as a group. We don’t need to continue to divide, and I don’t think we will,” Tuberville said. “I think we need to have a more cohesive group and obviously give [Trump] when he gets elected as much support as we possibly can.”
Tuberville said Scott knows Trump better than Thune and Cornyn do.
“I’ve suggested to both Cornyn and Thune, ‘Hey, you’ve got to get to know the president and you’ve got to be supportive,’” he said. “Whoever is the leader is going to have to work very closely with the president because he’s only got four years, and the first two years are going to be very crucial.”
