Florida U.S. Sen. Rick Scott endorses Trump — a dig of sorts at Gov. Ron DeSantis
Scott's endorsement of Trump is no shocker, but that it comes before the first votes in the 2024 caucuses and primaries are cast is a dig of sorts at Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is also in the race.
Just days before GOP presidential hopefuls arrive in Florida to pitch their campaigns to voters, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott joined most of Florida’s congressional delegation in endorsing former President Donald Trump’s White House comeback bid.
Scott's backing of Trump ended months of silence on the GOP nomination contest. Scott has been a longtime and vocal supporter of Trump but said this year he was "focused" on his own 2024 re-election campaign.
Scott announced his endorsement in an opinion piece published Thursday in Newsweek in which he said he believes the GOP needs to unite behind one candidate to “defeat Joe Biden and rescue America,” and that Trump could get that job done.
“In my view there is one person running who has the strength to bring America back, who is well-positioned to win the Republican primary, and who will win the general election. And that is why I am supporting Donald Trump for president,” Scott wrote in Newsweek.
Rick Scott backing Trump no surprise, and a dig at DeSantis?
Scott's endorsement of Trump is no shocker, but that it comes before the first votes in the 2024 caucuses and primaries are cast is a dig of sorts at Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is also in the race.
DeSantis and Scott have had an at times frosty relationship since the former won the the election to succeed the latter in the governor's office. One sore spot is that Scott made more than 80 state appointments before leaving office and also missed DeSantis' inauguration speech. DeSantis took a shot at Scott at the outset of the pandemic over the state unemployment system that was overhauled during Scott's first term as governor. DeSantis derided the benefits system a "jalopy."
Scott's 2016 endorsement: Florida Gov. Scott endorses Trump after Trump wins state’s GOP primary
Scott's endorsement comes at a time when the GOP is experiencing a deep divide within its ranks, signaled through a weekslong struggle to elect a new House Speaker after eight far-right Republicans successfully ousted former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
The divide will be exhibited at a Republican presidential primary debate taking place in Miami next week. DeSantis and former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley will be among those on the stage that evening.
That same night, Trump is hosting a rally in Hialeah, just 11 miles from the debate, in a move to outshine the Republican National Committee and NBC News event that is seeking to capture the attention of Republican and other voters nationwide.
Scott's announcement also comes two days before the senator is speaking at a Republican summit in Orlando, alongside Trump, DeSantis, Haley and tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who is also seeking the GOP presidential nomination.
An expected, but delayed endorsement by Rick Scott
Asked in January and in May whether he’d endorse Trump, Scott had similar answers.
"There's a lot of things that President Trump did while he's president that I'm very supportive of," Scott said, then added his focus was his own campaign.
This year, however, the majority of Florida's Republican congressional delegation announced its support for the former president's third presidential run. Although Scott stood back, he's been one of Trump's most enthusiastic and steadfast political allies in the past.
Before Florida's 2016 presidential primaries, then-Gov. Scott complimented Trump in a Paste BN op-ed, in saying he was "capturing the frustration of many Americans after seven years of President Obama’s very intentional government takeover of the U.S. economy."
At that time, Scott's praise was bold since two Florida figures were also seeking the GOP nomination that year, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and former Gov. Jeb Bush.
Scott ran for the U.S. Senate in 2018 with Trump's endorsement, which helped Scott narrowly win his race. In 2021, Scott also traveled to Mar-a-Lago to present Trump with the National Republican Senatorial Committee's "Champion for Freedom" award in the immediate aftermath of the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Stephany Matat is a politics reporter for The Palm Beach Post, part of the Paste BN-Florida network. Reach her at smatat@pbpost.com. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.