TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Florida Senator Rick Scott has endorsed Donald Trump in the 2024 Republican presidential primary over Ron DeSantis, his own state's governor. Scott is so far the most prominent name in Florida politics to decline supporting DeSantis.
"As governor and senator, I worked hand in hand with President Trump to accomplish great things for Florida," Scott said in a letter published to Newsweek. "When Donald Trump was in the White House, Florida had a partner in the Oval Office."
After initially polling not far behind former President Trump in national and state polls, DeSantis now trails Trump by double digits. He still regularly polls above his fellow GOP challengers, such as former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
The rest of Scott's statement was more adversarial to President Joe Biden than to the other Republican hopefuls, but Scott's decision not to endorse DeSantis spoke almost as loudly as an outright dismissal of him. DeSantis is Scott's successor as Florida Governor, and champions many of the same policy positions. The two differ in their public personas; DeSantis has been more antagonistic to his political opponents than Scott, even starting a public feud with The Walt Disney Company.
Scott himself was floated as a potential presidential candidate early on in the process, but ruled himself out early on. He released an 11-Point Plan to Rescue America as a senator, proposing policies such as ending all federal laws within five years pending re-passage, mandating the Pledge of Allegiance in schools, a mandatory income tax for all Americans, and closing the U.S. Department of Education.
