During his tenure, the party underperformed and saw Democrats expand their Senate majority. That’s a reference to the ' Rescue America' plan Scott pitched during the 2022 midterms when he was chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “There are pythons more popular in Florida than Rick Scott’s plan to cut Medicare and Social Security,” said David Bergstein, the DSCC’s communications director. Senate race, Scott has never won by more than 2 percentage points, including in a 2018 recount that saw him defeat Democratic Sen.

They note that in his two gubernatorial races and one U.S.

Overall, six Democratic Senate incumbents are facing tough re-election bids: Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Jacky Rosen of Nevada, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana, as well as Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who is now an independent.ĭemocrats are trying to remain optimistic. The number of states in play is part of the difficult calculus for groups like the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. If you can get Florida, that’s a big win.” The national Democratic Party is going to spend money here,” Scott told NBC News during an interview at a downtown Tampa Starbucks this week. “It is the first presidential election cycle I will be in.

Because it’s a presidential cycle, however, Scott anticipates more spending from national Democrats this time around. Last time Scott was on the ballot, in 2018, Democrats had a nearly 270,000-voter registration advantage, a number that has flipped to a more than 400,000-voter advantage for Republicans after the GOP poured millions of dollars into registration efforts in recent years.ĭuring the 2022 midterms, national Democratic groups all but abandoned the state, spending just $2 million compared to $60 million during the 2014 midterms. That problem for Democrats is most clearly seen through the rewired makeup of the state’s electorate.

We never got over