Rick Scott’s increase in Senate leadership is good news for Americans – who voted for real change

Jacksonville, Florida – Reporters who did not have much direct experience with Florida Senator Rick Scott were given a waiver His second bid for Senate leadership,

He considered his lopsided defeat to Mitch McConnell two years ago as evidence of Scott’s ceiling, not his floor — a hardy band of 10 willing to resist the RINO hegemony of the Kentucky Republican who gave President Biden his first term with senatorial approval. Allowed to spend freely in two years.

McConnell’s last two years have been instantly forgettable, a sepia-tinted Polaroid of gridlock and stale ideas. Republican politics-as-usual. Democrat Lite.

Voters proved Tuesday night that they want something different. What In 1976, Reagan called it “bold, unmistakable colors with no light pastels.”

Donald Trump won a surprise mandate, winning all seven swing states and making gains in liberal strongholds, as he set a contrast to the vapid Democratic managerial-class sensibilities of the hyperfunded yet hypodynamic Kamala Harris campaign.

A few months of indulgence burned a billion dollars, but the light of the flame of wealth showed the 45th President a way back to Washington.

Trump’s political rise and fall has been not as an establishmentarian but as an outsider.

And there are two insiders in the Senate leadership race right now – Johns Cornyn and Thune – and one real outsider in Rick Scott.

When he was elected Governor in 2010, he was not the choice of the ruling establishment.

In 2014, polls suggested he would lose re-election.

In 2018, he had to unseat Senator Bill Nelson while spending big for a narrow victory.

And in 2022, even before McConnell’s defeat, his leadership of the National Republican Senatorial Committee declined amid a raft of candidates not ready for prime-time, making it look like a curio cabinet compared to the starting lineup. Were staying.

But he played the long game the whole time.

He did so, whether as an outsider candidate for governor or as a leader who protected conservative results for eight years with a controversial compromise — post-Parkland legislation that tightened various gun-control requirements. Did it. Scott was part of a wave of governors who did so that year, and the clamor for such restrictions in Tallahassee that year was bipartisan.

And he did the same in the Senate, filing a lot of bills that went nowhere except setting legislative priorities—message legislation at the time but left an indelible mark.

There was no possibility that Scott was going to support Ron DeSantis for president, and his endorsement of Trump came when it became clear that the former president would dominate any contest.

But the two have always been at odds with each other, including in 2022 when Trump supported Scott’s challenge to McConnell (for what it was worth).

Scott is loyal and, like Trump, indebted to Chief of Staff Susie Wills. He also understands what is required in a majority-leader role: a disciplined operation that gets as much to the finish line as possible in a short period of time.

In Tallahassee, where he succeeded him for eight years as governor, a legislative session lasts only 60 days. Scott gets the idea of ​​the aggressive action and quick start that will be needed to handle judicial appointments and recess appointments to Trump’s Cabinet, allowing his team to do meaningful work on day one.

The senator is in a heated political situation. After 14 years of close races, Scott won his re-election by double digits against Democrat polls that had him running too close.

And one reason for this is that he himself inspires personal loyalty. His staff sticks around, and state Republicans in Florida (with one exception noted above) respect him.

They know she is disciplined, focused and a good choice to ensure Trump’s agenda is advanced rather than stalled.

His endorsements are now coming in quickly, and Trump supporters should hope this is a sign of inevitability. Other options might go slow on the thing they voted for, in that quintessential Washington way.