The pressure campaign being waged by allies of Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) to boost his chances to become the next Republican leader is having a boomerang effect, as it has increasingly antagonized GOP senators and could doom his already-dim odds in the race.
Scott is running against Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) for the right to succeed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) atop the conference, with the latter two are widely seen as the favorites.
But with just over 48 hours until the planned vote, Scott’s backers — many of whom are ardent supporters of President-elect Trump — have gone on a public offensive to try to put him over the top.
One top aide to a Senate Republican who has yet to decide on who to support told The Hill that the member “could not be more turned off” by the coercion tactics and described the level of efficacy in pushing them away as a “10 out of 10.”
“It’s the last thing you’d want to do if you were mounting a successful campaign to get your colleagues to vote for you,” the aide said. “He’s shown no penchant for winning friends or influencing positive outcomes.”
“How are you going to be leader of the conference if the only tactic in your toolkit is to attack members of your conference?” the aide continued.
Those backing Scott publicly include Tucker Carlson, Elon Musk and Steve Bannon. In addition, a large number of conservative social media accounts have been publicly targeting members who are allegedly backing Thune or Cornyn on a purported and unverified whip list that was making the rounds.
The vote, which will be conducted via a secret ballot, is set for Wednesday morning.
A source familiar with the Florida senator’s bid called the pro-Scott push an “organic outpouring of support,” but also tried to maintain a distance, pointing to the lack of attacks by the senator himself against Thune and Cornyn, both of whom are allies of McConnell.
“His focus remains on outreach to his colleagues and building a positive case for his plan to change how the Senate operates and using his decades-long personal relationship with President-elect Donald Trump to execute his agenda starting on Day One as his ally in the Senate,” the source said of Scott.
Scott famously challenged McConnell, a boogeyman of the MAGA community, two years ago and failed, winning only 10 votes to 37 for the longtime leader.
It is clear whether Scott will do better with his present campaign. He has the most public endorsements, as five Senate Republicans have backed him, including Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Bill Hagerty (Tenn.), both of whom may become Trump cabinet officials.
But Scott is not seen as having the save level of support as Cornyn or Thune ahead of the secret-ballot vote.
One Senate Republican said that Thune is a 60/40 favorite over Cornyn and predicted that Scott will not get north of 15 votes come Wednesday.
They noted that his rocky tenure at the National Republican Senatorial Committee during the 2022 cycle is still squarely in the minds of members. Scott predicted that the GOP two years ago would win in the neighborhood of 55 seats, but instead ended up losing a seat to leave the party with 49 amid complaints from McConnell about “candidate quality.”
“It’s very difficult to understand what you need for leadership unless you’ve been in the Senate and you’ve seen styles that work and styles that don’t work,” the Senate GOP member said. “At the end of the day, suggesting that somebody go into place who was, let’s just say, less than stellar in his only leadership role is highly unlikely.”
The Senate Republican added that the effort has also been harmful for Scott as it closes the door on any “serious attempt” to conduct the vote via open ballot.
“That’s all but out the window now that they’ve overstepped,” they said.
A second Senate GOP member also noted that this is the second time in roughly a year that the MAGA army has tried to strong-arm lawmakers into a desired outcome in a closed-door setting, pointing to Rep. Jim Jordan’s (R-Ohio) push to become House Speaker last year.
“The outside pressure is from many folks that loved the House Speaker fight, and thought that was a good thing for Republicans,” the second senator said.
The final day leading up to the vote could still lead to shake-ups, especially if Trump decides to weigh in and endorse one of the three candidates or put his thumb on the scale. Thune has publicly said it is in Trump’s best interest to stay out of the race.
Nevertheless, sources believe that no matter how it is sliced, Scott cannot win.
“There are plenty of members who are more than open to an alternative to Thune or Cornyn. I think they want someone a little fresher, a little more in line with the base of the party, but Scott isn’t that guy,” the Senate GOP aide said.
“Even for those looking for an alternative, Scott’s campaign is not what they want,” they continued. “His ceiling gets lower by the hour.”
