Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), the chair of the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, declined to say on Sunday if he would run for majority leader if his party gains control of the upper chamber.
“I’m not focused on anything except getting a majority Tuesday night,” Scott told NBC “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd when asked if he would run. “Everybody wants to ask me about a bunch of things that are going to happen after Tuesday night and my whole focus is Tuesday night.”
“That’s a nonanswer,” Todd interjected.
“I’m going to focus on Tuesday night,” Scott responded. “I’m focusing on what I get done Tuesday night.”
Scott has acknowledged a rift with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has cited concerns over “candidate quality” in the party’s quest to take control of the upper chamber, a veiled reference to the GOP’s many Senate battleground nominees who won their primaries with former President Trump’s backing.
“Sen. McConnell and I clearly have a strategic disagreement here … We have great candidates,” Scott told Politico in August. “He wants to do the same thing I want to do: I want to get a majority. And I think it’s important that we’re all cheerleaders for our candidates.”
Scott in September also penned an op-ed in the Washington Examiner suggesting that criticizing candidates shows “contempt for the voters” who gave them the nomination.
Earlier this year, McConnell distanced himself from a memo Scott wrote outlining his vision for a GOP agenda if Republicans take control of the Senate, including provisions to require all Americans to pay some income tax and sunset all federal laws after five years.
McConnell has instead attempted to cast the midterms as a referendum on President Biden, whose approval ratings have remained underwater for more than a year, rather than proposing elaborate policy agendas.
“We will not have as part of our agenda a bill that raises taxes on half the American people and sunsets Social Security and Medicare within five years,” the usually tight-lipped McConnell said in February during a weekly press conference.
Scott has since removed the income tax provision, and Biden and Democrats have leveraged the agenda to attack the GOP during recent campaign events, suggesting the proposal to automatically sunset legislation would end Social Security and Medicare.
“There’s a guy named Sen. Rick Scott of Florida whose in charge of electing the Republicans in the Senate, he’s the guy pushing [Pennsylvania Republican Senate nominee Mehmet] Oz,” Biden said during a Saturday rally in Philadelphia.
“Well, let me show you,” the president continued, holding up a copy of Scott’s agenda. “They listed in a program, listed all their proposals, it’s too small to be able to read. I just circled the one and brought it out here and I’m going to quote what they say about Social Security: ‘All federal legislation sunsets in five years. If the law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again.’”