Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida announced Thursday that he was endorsing former President Donald Trump for the Republican nomination, snubbing Ron DeSantis, Scott’s successor as governor of the Sunshine State.
Scott, 70, argued in an op-ed in Newsweek that the time had come for Republicans to support a candidate to defeat President Biden, and that while any Republican candidate would be better than the 80-year-old incumbent, Republican voters had made it clear that they want Trump to return to the White House.
“I am optimistic that we can return America to its rightful position of economic and military strength and the undisputed moral leader of the free world, but only with strong leadership in the White House,” Scott wrote.
“That is why I support my friend President Donald J. Trump to be the 47th president of the United States and encourage all Republicans to unite behind his efforts to take back the White House.
“It is time for the Republican Party to unite behind one candidate and declare with one voice that we are united in our efforts to defeat Joe Biden and rescue America,” Scott added, despite the first race for The nomination, the Iowa caucuses, will not take place until January 15.
Rick Scott speaks during a Shabbat dinner on the opening day of the Republican Jewish Coalition leadership summit at the Venetian Conference Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.AFP via Getty Images
Most Republicans in Congress, including most of Florida’s congressional delegation, have backed Trump, 77, to regain the office he lost to Biden in 2020.
DeSantis’ campaign quickly responded to Scott’s endorsement, arguing that the governor will win the Florida primary and that his man has a broader base of support in key early states.
“Ron DeSantis has more support from state legislators than the former president in Iowa (41), New Hampshire (62) and South Carolina (16),” spokesman Andrew Romeo said in a statement. “He also has the support of almost all Florida elected officials because he worked with them to achieve historic results for the conservative movement. The governor will win in his home state because Floridians want to see a fighter who brings to Washington the same type of results-oriented leadership that he has provided in the Sunshine State.”
President Donald Trump endorses Florida Governor Rick Scott as he speaks at a rally in Pensacola, Florida. Scott defeated Senator Bill Nelson.AP
The 45th president has polled well ahead of other GOP candidates, with RealClearPolitics’ national polling average showing him with 59.3% support compared to the Florida governor’s 13.4%. No other candidate has surpassed double digits.
In Florida, the average of 538 polls shows Trump winning an average of 57.3% of the vote, with DeSantis at 21.9%.
Scott was narrowly elected to two terms as Florida governor in 2010 and 2014 before narrowly unseating incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson in 2018. By contrast, DeSantis won re-election as governor last year by nearly 20 percentage points over Democrat Charlie Crist.
President Donald Trump (center) and U.S. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) (right) listen to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (left) during a tour of the Edgar Hoover Dam in Lake Okeechobee, Florida, on March 2019. .AFP via Getty Images
Meanwhile, Scott was widely blamed for Republicans’ failure to regain control of the Senate in the midterm elections (during which time he chaired the National Republican Senatorial Committee) before launching an unsuccessful challenge to Mitch McConnell (R- Ky.) to lead the Republican conference. .
While Scott called for party unity in his op-ed, he stopped short of calling on DeSantis and the other contenders for the Republican nomination to drop out of the race.
“I would never demand, or even ask, that another candidate abandon a political race,” the senator wrote. “That is a decision that each candidate must make for themselves. But I support Donald Trump for president because the stakes are so high.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn