Sen Rick Scott staves off GOP challengers in key Senate primary

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., the Sunshine State’s senior senator, successfully staved off a primary challenge Tuesday night and will be the GOP’s nominee for re-election in November.

Scott, a former health care executive, also previously launched an intraparty bid to succeed Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., as the Republican leader in the upper chamber.

Scott barely survived a challenge from current NASA administrator Bill Nelson by about one-eighth of a percentage point in his 2018 race.

Scott now faces the winner of the Democrat primary, former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell.

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A noted swing state for decades, Florida has been increasingly shifting comfortably toward the Republican column in recent races.

In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Bush v. Gore put an end to the tallying of “hanging chads” on paper ballots as the Sunshine State narrowly went to pick then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush in the presidential election.

These days, the state has reliably re-elected statewide Republicans, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, who trounced former Rep. Charlie Crist, D-Fla., in 2022.

Scott has been a reliable ally of former President Trump and currently sits on the Senate Homeland Security, Budget, Aging and Armed Services committees.

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On his campaign website, primary challenger John Columbus described himself as a “modern millennial Florida man with a big dream and patriotic spirit.”

Columbus said he wants America to remain a “beacon of freedom” and that a change is needed in Washington, D.C.

Meanwhile, Keith Gross said he was running to buck the “Washington Uniparty” and that “spineless RINO Republicans have sold our country out to foreign nations and corrupt insiders.”

Gross also plugged his support for Trump.