Critics are calling into question the efficacy of Rick Scott’s (R-FL) tenure as chairman of Senate Republicans’ campaign arm after the senator’s bullish election predictions fell short.
Scott, who heads the National Republican Senatorial Committee, projected that Republicans would hold 52 to 55 seats in the Senate next year, publicly contradicting Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) more cautious predictions.
As of Wednesday evening, control of the Senate is tied 48 to 48 and will come down to the outcome in Nevada and Arizona, as well as a Dec. 6 runoff in Georgia.
“It starts right here, we’re going to get 52 Republican senators — we have to win here,” Scott said during a campaign event with Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC) in North Carolina last month. “I think we can get 53, 54, 55. The energy is on our side. People are fed up with the Biden agenda.”
After a disappointing election night for Republicans, strategists are evaluating the NRSC’s midterm approach, resurfacing gripes about Scott’s public disagreements with McConnell and fallout from an 11-point agenda Scott released earlier this year that the Democrats wound up using as a cudgel against vulnerable Republicans.
“When you’re the NRSC chairman, your role is to do no harm,” a Republican strategist with knowledge of the Senate races told the Washington Examiner. “It’s to help where you can, it is to help fundraise, and it’s to lend air support — not to put your candidates in a position of answering all your bad ideas.”
Scott’s “Rescue America” plan became a top target of the White House in the spring, particularly over provisions regarding reapproval of Social Security and Medicare every five years and requiring all earners to pay some sort of income tax. President Joe Biden and other Democrats ended up framing the blueprint as a Republican scheme to end the welfare programs, even though Scott’s plan — which he says he released in his personal capacity, not as the NRSC chairman — also called for their preservation.
“What’s particularly devastating is that ended up being the closing message for Democrats in a few states,” the strategist said, adding, “I think what Rick Scott did was try to plant his flag for 2024 as the fiscal hawk, but in a way, that made it tougher for other Republicans to answer for because he did it while holding the mantle.”
McConnell, who declined to release a governing agenda ahead of the midterm elections, publicly dismissed Scott’s proposal in March.
More recently, the two disagreed over Senate Republicans’ electoral chances, with Scott projecting confidence and McConnell suggesting the outcome would be close.
“I think there’s probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate. Senate races are just different — they’re statewide, candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome,” McConnell said in August.
Republican strategist Doug Heye affirmed McConnell’s view, saying the “GOP suffered from a lack of quality candidates,” but also urged caution as votes are still being counted.
“It is tougher to recruit quality candidates in 2022 — what normal person wants to come to Washington in this environment?” he said. “Add to that the destructive role Trump played in primaries and the final days of the general, and Republican opportunities were muddled.”
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The Washington Examiner reached out to Scott’s office and the NRSC for comment but has not received a response.
Scott, who has sidestepped whether he would back McConnell as the Senate’s GOP leader, has not ruled out a run of his own.
