Rick Scott ‘seriously considering’ run for Senate GOP leader

Florida Sen. Rick Scott (R) said Friday he is “seriously considering” a run for Senate Republican leader and pledged he would improve communication with rank-and-file Republican senators if elected.

“This is a big opportunity,” Scott said in an interview on “The Charlie Kirk Show.”

“We could actually have somebody that actually believes in this country and believes in solving the problems of this country running the Senate when we get a majority in November,” he added. “We could make big change.”

He made his comments when Kirk asked him about possibly jumping in the race to replace Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), who announced Wednesday he will retire from the leadership role at year’s end.  

“I’m seriously considering it. As you know, I ran against McConnell about 14 months ago,” he said.

If Scott jumps in, he would make it a three-way race with Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) and former Senate GOP Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas).

Thune and Cornyn are talking to colleagues about serving as the next Senate GOP leader, and Cornyn formally announced his candidacy Thursday.

McConnell defeated Scott by a vote of 37-10 after the 2022 midterm election, but Scott said Friday he didn’t have much time to campaign because McConnell rushed the vote.

Some Senate conservatives at the time argued colleagues should have followed Senate GOP conference rules and held the leadership election in January 2023, which would have given Scott more time to mount a challenge.

“He rushed the vote to the next day, we weren’t able to prevail,” Scott said.

Now, he and other conservatives, including Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) are calling for a conference meeting to give Republican senators a chance to talk about how they want to reform the leadership.

“Here’s the process we’re going to go through. First thing we’re doing is we’ve called — Ron Johnson, Mike Lee and I and some others — have called for a conference meeting and said, ‘Hey, what do we want to be?’” Scott told Kirk.

Scott says as a “former business guy,” he’d want to come up with a mission statement “about what we stand for.”

And once senators discuss what they stand for, the next question is: “Who are we going to elect to do it?” he explained.

He ticked through a list of potential action items for the GOP conference, such as securing the border, balancing the budget and making “sure we’re not in forever wars.”

He said if senators want to take “the same path we’ve been going down” under McConnell’s leadership, then they shouldn’t vote for him.

“Because I’m not doing,” he said. “I’ve been fighting to fix your federal government and hold your federal government since I’ve got up there,” citing Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), JD Vance (R-Ohio), Lee and Johnson as allies.

Scott was more circumspect in talking about a potential leadership bid immediately after McConnell announced his decision to step down from leadership.

The Florida senator initially told reporters he would stay focused on his reelection race, appearing to downplay the likelihood that he would make another bid to serve as leader.  

“As you know, I’m up for reelection. So I’m focused on my reelection,” he said. “As you know, I thought we should have had a change in leadership. I think there’s a better way to run the Senate.”