Source: Politics<\/p>\n
In a recent private meeting at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump\u00a0made a personal pitch to Senate Republican campaign chief Rick Scott. \u201cYou should run for Senate majority leader,\u201d he told the National Republican Senatorial Committee, according to a person familiar with the exchange.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t the first time, either: Trump has repeatedly told Scott he\u2019d be great at the job and should challenge Mitch McConnell,\u00a0multiple people with knowledge of the interactions told POLITICO. The Florida Republican didn\u2019t tell Trump \u201cno\u201d that day \u2014 though he\u2019s told reporters that he supports McConnell for leader<\/a>. Instead, Scott quickly pivoted to the reason for his meeting.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to focus on winning\u201d the Senate, Scott told Trump. \u201cMy only focus is on winning.\u201d<\/p>\n The Florida governor-turned-senator is navigating some treacherous terrain \u2014 and not just the Senate midterms landscape. He\u2019s trying to balance working with the GOP\u2019s two most powerful figures in McConnell and Trump, who also happen to despise each other.<\/p>\n But Scott\u2019s predicament also underscores his rising stock in the party. The ambitious former businessman is seen as a possible presidential contender \u2014 or, more recently in some Trump circles, as a dark-horse candidate for leadership someday.<\/p>\n This week only cemented speculation about the latter: Scott, 69, made waves \u2014 and infuriated some McConnell allies \u2014 when he bucked the GOP leader\u2019s decision not to lay out a policy agenda for the campaign and instead released his own<\/a>. Whereas McConnell wanted to make the election a referendum on President Joe Biden’s\u00a0unpopularity, inflation and other Democratic failures, Scott unilaterally decided that Republicans should also state what they\u2019re for.<\/p>\n His list of red-meat proposals addressed topics ranging from term limits and finishing Trump\u2019s border wall to nationwide voter ID laws and banning transgender athletes from women\u2019s sports.<\/p>\n Scott\u2019s move opened a rare tactical divide between McConnell and the man leading the party\u2019s efforts to win the Senate. But despite internal criticism from some in his own party, Scott isn\u2019t soft-pedaling his platform. He\u2019s spending seven figures from his own campaign account to promote it<\/a>, starting today. This weekend, he\u2019ll tout his proposals at the Conservative Political Action Conference.<\/p>\n Scott and McConnell have a professional relationship, but they\u2019ve never been close. In fact, there were plenty of concerns among McConnell allies about Scott\u2019s decision to bring in his own people to run the NRSC rather than relying on those who\u2019d worked in that world before. <\/p>\n There were also worries that his objections to the Electoral College results on Jan. 6 could repel donors \u2014 though Scott has managed to raise record sums of money.<\/p>\n Scott has kept Trump close where McConnell has not: While Trump was attacking McConnell for saying the then-president incited a riot at the Capitol, the NRSC chair awarded the former president<\/a> with the committee\u2019s \u201cChampion for Freedom Award\u201d in April. That caused eye rolls even among some Republicans. Others in the GOP, however, saw it as a wise move for Scott\u2019s future political ambitions.<\/p>\n Scott, a self-made pol who has gotten to where he is almost entirely on his own, has always rankled the establishment. Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and the Republican Governors Association vocally backed his primary opponent for Florida governor in 2010 \u2014 one of the reasons Scott to this day refuses to wade into any GOP primaries. Then, in 2018, the NRSC refused to help Scott in his campaign to unseat then-Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, telling him he had the bandwidth to raise money or self-fund. Scott won by 10,000 votes.<\/p>\n As a result, Scott has always followed his own counsel. As governor, he swore off the political back-scratching in Tallahassee that his GOP predecessors had embraced. Instead, he ran ads in the districts of state officials whose support he needed to pass his agenda.<\/p>\n He has a similar reputation in Washington as a somewhat stubborn loner. While he gave McConnell and RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel\u00a0a heads-up before unveiling his midterm platform, he didn\u2019t ask their permission, let alone consult with anyone in party leadership, we\u2019re told.<\/p>\n \u201cRick Scott doesn\u2019t give a fuck about what McConnell world thinks,\u201d said one senior Republican official who\u2019s not in either camp but has observed the back and forth between them closely.<\/p>\n Scott\u2019s spokesman CHRIS HARTLINE had a different take, one McConnell\u2019s team also endorsed: \u201cChairman Scott and Leader McConnell are working hand in hand to win back the Senate in November.\u201d<\/p>\n Scott\u2019s policy platform gambit has dominated chatter among D.C. Republicans this week. There are two competing views about what he did:<\/p>\n His skeptics say he\u2019s putting his own political ambitions above his mandate of capturing the Senate. The argument is that his midterm agenda plays great among the base, but at the risk of alienating independent voters needed to flip the chamber. McConnell has a track record of winning campaigns, they add, and Scott should follow his lead.<\/p>\n Critics also note that Scott\u2019s platform provided Democrats with<\/a>fresh ammunition to hit the GOP. One of the planks would require all Americans to pay taxes, when currently about half of them \u2014 mainly low-income and senior citizens \u2014 do not. Democrats are having a field day labeling the plan a tax hike. And many prominent Republicans have distanced themselves from it or panned that proposal outright, as POLITICO reported this week<\/a> \u2014 including even longtime advisers to anti-tax king Grover Norquist<\/a>.<\/p>\n McConnell\u2019s office declined to comment on whether the leader supports Scott\u2019s agenda. <\/p>\n Scott’s allies contend this has nothing to do with ambition and everything to do with winning. McConnell may know about elections, but he\u2019s neither popular among, nor has the finger on the pulse of, base voters. <\/p>\n Scott also has gotten an enormous amount of face time with a new cadre of post-Trump donors during his travels as NRSC chief. His associates say Scott knows their thinking better than McConnell does.<\/p>\n Those who agree with his decision to put out an agenda \u2014 a group that includes senior officials at the RNC \u2014 say that donors and GOP voters are eager for a forward-looking agenda laying out what Republicans will do if they win. There\u2019s a concern about a repeat of 2017, when Republicans, after running on repealing Obamacare, had basically no plan to realize that promise.<\/p>\n Plus, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is planning to put out his own midterms agenda. Why, Scott’s backers say, should Senate Republicans not do the same? <\/p>\n