Rick Scott Garners Endorsements From Trump Allies in GOP Senate Leadership Race

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) speaks to reporters on the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act at the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 11, 2024. Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images

A campaign by Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) to be the next Senate majority leader is surging with a blizzard of endorsements from colleagues who normally keep silent about whom they will support for the position until the secret ballots are cast.

Scott, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), and Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) are competing to succeed Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the longest-serving Republican Senate leader of modern times, having filled the position since 2007 in Senates controlled by both parties.

Scott challenged McConnell for the position two years ago but garnered only 11 votes. Cornyn was McConnell’s deputy during President-elect Donald Trump’s first term in the White House. Thune has been McConnell’s deputy during President Joe Biden’s tenure in the Oval Office.

The Florida Republican’s surge of support over the weekend came from colleagues in the Senate and unexpected major backers outside of Congress.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) posted his endorsement on social media platform X on Nov. 10, as did former GOP presidential contender Vivek Ramaswamy.

“Said it earlier this year & I’ll say it again: @ScottforFlorida for Senate Majority Leader,” Ramaswamy said.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who was encouraged by some libertarians to seek the top post, announced his endorsement of Scott on X on Nov. 9.

“I will be supporting Rick Scott for Senate Majority Leader. The status quo of $2 Trillion annual deficits is unsustainable,” Paul said.

Also endorsing Scott on Nov. 9 was Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), who declared on X that he was doing so because “any leader of this new majority must be able to work hand-in-hand with President Trump to advance his America First agenda. The Senate must lean into advancing this agenda.”

Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy speaks at the 2023 CA GOP conference in Anaheim, Calif., on Sept. 30, 2023. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

“That’s why I want to see a Senate Majority Leader who can join me in embracing the Trump agenda, which will unify Senate Republicans,” Hagerty said.

Perhaps the most unexpected Scott endorsement came from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who wrote a post in support of him on X on Nov. 10. A Scott aide said Kennedy and the Florida senator do not have a long-standing relationship.

X owner Elon Musk also became a factor in the Senate leadership race, endorsing Scott and posting a survey on his platform on Nov. 10 asking the public which of the three candidates they favored. Scott was comfortably ahead late on Nov. 10, drawing 67 percent of the more than 767,000 votes, compared with 5 percent for Thune and 6 percent for Cornyn. “Other” drew 22 percent support.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) in Washington on Dec. 5, 2022. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Cornyn, who was the first of the three candidates to declare publicly, also got his first public endorsement from one of the Senate’s most vocal and visible conservatives, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who cited the Texas Republican’s fundraising prowess.

In an indication of the deeply “inside baseball” nature of such congressional leadership contests, Hawley issued his endorsement first via a statement to Punchbowl News, a political newsletter focused on Congress and the White House.

Cornyn is also encountering significant opposition from conservative and evangelical Christian activists, according to a longtime leader of one of those groups. Speaking on background, the leader told The Epoch Times that “Cornyn protected the establishment when he was chair of the Senatorial campaign committee backing [then-Florida Gov.] Charlie Crist over Rubio” in the state’s 2010 GOP Senate primary.

A senior Senate aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Epoch Times, however, that Rubio subsequently supported Cornyn, who was reelected unanimously to head the committee for another campaign cycle.

Crist subsequently left the GOP and lost a 2022 bid for another term in the Florida state House as a Democrat while continuing a simultaneous gubernatorial campaign against Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who won a second term in defeating Crist by 19 percentage points.

Thune is struggling against similar opposition, according to the same leader, who criticized the lawmaker for not being a champion of conservative causes.

A spokesman for Thune told The Epoch Times the claim is “unequivocally untrue.”

Trump has kept mum about whom among the Republican Senate trio he would prefer to work with as Senate majority leader in the 119th Congress.

Trump did post on Truth Social on Nov. 10 a couple of his requirements for the winner of the Nov. 13 election. The incoming chief executive said he expects the new leader to support expedited recess appointments. He wrote, “Without [them] we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner.”

During his first term’s third and fourth years, when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress, Trump’s choices to fill executive branch vacancies created by firings or resignations were often delayed.

“Sometimes the votes can take two years, or more,” Trump said in his Truth Social post. “This is what they did four years ago, and we cannot let it happen again. We need positions filled IMMEDIATELY!”

He also said the lame-duck Congress, which returns to the nation’s capital on Nov. 12, should not confirm any more of Biden’s judicial appointments.

Vice President as Senate Leader?

As Scott’s prospects advanced over the weekend, the open leadership position also gave rise to discussions about the possibility of a radical new positioning for Vice President-elect JD Vance when he becomes the Senate’s presiding officer. Vance will resign from his Ohio Senate seat before being inaugurated in January as vice president.

While the presiding officer position has gained prominence in recent years largely because it breaks tied votes in the Senate, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) floated the idea on Nov. 8 of having Vance double as the Senate majority leader.

In a “1 a.m.” conversation with Turning Point’s Charlie Kirk, Lee pointed out that the presiding officer is under Senate rules potentially the most powerful position in the upper chamber.

When Kirk mentioned Lee’s observation on digital media personality Glenn Beck’s show, Beck expressed support for the idea of Vance’s serving as Senate majority leader, saying: “I am in love with that. ... JD would be fantastic.”

Kirk noted that there would be precedent for Vance’s assuming both roles because John Adams was Senate majority leader and presiding officer while also serving as the nation’s first vice president, under President George Washington.

Lee told The Epoch Times on Nov. 10 that he was surprised by the response to his comment. However, he said, “It’s a thought that I’ve had for a long time. For most of the time I’ve been in the Senate, I’ve thought the vice-president’s position was probably under-utilized by presidents.”

The Utah Republican said he issued a post on X late on Nov. 8 seeking to clarify his observation.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) speaks about the war in Afghanistan during a news conference on Capitol Hill on Feb. 6, 2014. Mark Wilson/Getty Images

“What I was trying to say is not that he would be the elected majority leader per se, but that any vice-president, especially one of the same party as controls the Senate, could end up as the de facto leader of the majority party,” Lee told The Epoch Times.