Rick Scott bullish on GOP retaking Senate, says Pennsylvania race ‘hardest’ for Republicans
Waking up early for the day’s first campaign rally, Gov. Rick Scott told the crowd that the battle for his Senate seat is the “hardest” for Republicans.
Scott’s comments come two weeks before the midterm elections and almost two years before the election of the new Senate majority leader if Republicans are able to take control of the chamber.
“A lot of us have never seen a race like this in the history of this country,” the Florida governor said.
He also said he believes the 2018 Senate race will be “the most difficult” for Republicans in the chamber’s history.
“I think people see us moving to the right. We’re not as conservative as we are nationally,” Scott said. “But that doesn’t mean we’re gone. We’re not.”
Scott is facing off against Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson in what is expected to be a hard-fought, high-profile race that will test divisions in the Republican Party and help determine how the GOP can win a Senate majority.
Florida’s Senate race will make the most money for TV ad buyers, and the stakes go well beyond the election. Both candidates are considered to be among the top-tier candidates going into Election Day, and the race will be the first to gauge to which extent the GOP can win back control of the chamber after a decade in which voters have turned the GOP from being the party of presidents, governors and state houses to being the party of the president, Donald Trump.
On the eve of the election, GOP turnout tracker Chris Rupkey said that while “Democrats are clearly favored,” he believes Scott will win the seat. And his prediction is based on the fact that Scott’s polling leads Nelson by about 23 percentage points.
The gubernatorial race between Democrat Andrew Gillum and Republican Ron De