Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) defended his stewardship of the GOP Senate campaign arm amid a flurry of reports about dwindling cash reserves as the midterm elections enter the home stretch.
Behind the scenes, Republicans have reportedly begun questioning Scott’s leadership of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which has found itself significantly outgunned by its Democratic counterpart in the ad wars despite a massive campaign haul early in the election cycle. Scott was resolute that the NRSC “did the right thing.”
RICK SCOTT HITS ‘TREASONOUS’ REPUBLICANS FOR ‘TRASH-TALKING’ GOP SENATE CANDIDATES
“We did the right thing. We spent early. And here’s the problem with campaigns: If you wait until the last month, I mean, there’s too much static. There’s too much noise out there,” Scott told Fox News’s Martha MacCallum. “As soon as our candidates got through their primaries, we started helping them.”
MacCallum pointed to a recent New York Times report that the NRSC had amassed a stunning $181.5 million campaign fortune but then spent 95% of it by the middle of the summer with only $23.2 million on hand by August — half of the Democratic Senate campaign arm’s firepower.
Martha: Where did all that money go?
Scott: We spent early.. Let’s look at the numbers… Ron Johnson is going to win
Martha: He’s behind by about five points right now right? pic.twitter.com/qaPW6zg4tR— Acyn (@Acyn) September 7, 2022
The report indicated that Scott ran the campaign spigot to make monumental investments in a digital initiative aimed at fortifying a solid online donor base but that the gambit largely flopped, leaving the NRSC with an unpleasant money crunch.
Scott argued the NRSC spending bonanza buoyed top GOP Senate contenders, but MacCallum countered that many key Republican nominees in battleground states have been trailing their Democratic rivals in key polling.
“They needed the money. They got through tough primaries — some of them did. They needed the resources, and we did it at the right time because what we don’t want to do is — remember what happened in Georgia, right? Everybody thought the runoff would be really easy,” Scott insisted. “Warnock didn’t get defined in there in the general election, and he was able to get a win.”
The spending spree notably came at a time when Republican certitude of a red wave was strong, but now, that conviction has withered amid fallout from the reversal of Roe v. Wade in June.
Analyses from FiveThirtyEight and others have projected that Democrats will win the Senate — a stark turnaround from the beginning of the summer when the outlook was rosy for Republicans. Even Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has voiced some unease about Republican prospects of recapturing the upper chamber.
Scott remained optimistic that Republicans will make gains in the midterm elections. Meanwhile, top Republicans have reportedly been scrambling behind the scenes to compensate for the financial shortfall against Democrats.
In August, the NRSC pulled back ads worth about $10 million in critical races, which was the result of a reprioritization of the organization’s ad selection strategy as the campaign arm sought cheaper ad slots, a spokesperson for the NRSC told the Washington Post.
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Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel recently huddled with major GOP donors, pleading with them to open up their coffers as Republican candidates get pummeled in the airways in key states, according to audio obtained by Politico. Some Republicans have also reportedly voiced hope that political action committees with ties to McConnell can help stem their money woes.
