Rick Scott enters race for Senate GOP leader
CNN
Florida Sen. Rick Scott announced his bid to be the next Senate GOP leader on Wednesday, putting him in a three-way secret ballot race that will be decided after the November elections.
Florida Sen. Rick Scott announced his bid to be the next Senate GOP leader on Wednesday, putting him in a three-way secret ballot race that will be decided after the November elections. Scott has been a longtime supporter of former President Donald Trump and has maintained an icy relationship with GOP leadership in the Senate, including with outgoing Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, whose leadership position he is again gunning for after losing a long-shot bid to replace the Kentucky Republican in 2022. Scott, a first-term senator, would be considered an underdog in the race, which includes GOP Sens. John Thune, the minority whip, and John Cornyn, a former whip. The two other men have for months jockeyed to tip the scales in a race with no clear front-runner as their colleagues in the Senate weigh the candidates’ fundraising abilities, leadership styles and their relationships with Trump — though the presumptive GOP presidential nominee has yet to endorse a replacement for McConnell, who has said he will step down as GOP leader in November. On Wednesday night, Scott told Fox News host Laura Ingraham that he had spoken to Trump earlier in the day about the need for change in the chamber, adding that the former president was “excited I’m getting into the race.” “I am a change agent. I was a change agent in business. I did turn arounds. I changed Florida,” Scott said. “We’re going to change the Senate. We’re going to be the Senate that helps Donald Trump get his conservative agenda done.” Scott has long been a close Trump ally and quickly endorsed the former president over his home-state governor, Ron DeSantis, for president last year. He was one of several Republican senators who objected to the certification of 2020 election results and has been a constant defender of Trump in the face of his legal troubles.
