Rick Scott Responds to Criticism He’s Prioritizing His Own Political Career Over the NRSC by Traveling to…Solid R Iowa

Sarah RumpfSep 11th, 2022, 7:52 pm
 
Rick Scott lurking behind Mitch McConnell

Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) has been facing a deluge of criticism over his stewardship of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, including accusations that he has prioritized his own personal political ambitions over helping the GOP retake the Senate majority, and he responded to that by…traveling to [checks notes] Iowa.

Wait, what?

Iowa is, to put it mildly, not expected to be competitive in this year’s midterm elections.

Former President Donald Trump handily won Iowa both times he was on the ballot, defeating Hillary Clinton in 2016 51.15% to 41.75% and surpassing Joe Biden in 2020 53.09% to 44.89%. Cook Political Report rates Sen. Chuck Grassley’s (R-IA) chances of re-election as “Solid R.”

For the state’s four congressional districts, Cook rates two as “Likely Republican,” one as “Lean Republican,” and the fourth, currently held by Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-IA), as so uncompetitive they don’t even bother to analyze it. Feenstra memorably defeated former Rep. Steve King in the 2020 primary after GOP leadership finally got fed up with King’s decades of bigoted comments, and then went on to win the general by nearly 25 points.

Meanwhile, Scott has been openly sparring with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) over the party’s struggles with problematic Trump-backed candidates, and facing growing accusations of mismanaging the NRSC’s finances in the wake of a New York Times report detailing how the group had brought in a “record cash haul” but burned through over 95 percent of it by the end of July.

In other words, with less than two months to go before the midterms, the solid-red Hawkeye State normally would not be expected to be a priority for the NRSC chairman’s travel itinerary.

And yet there was Scott in Iowa City, standing in the bed of a bright red pickup truck at a college football tailgate fundraiser held before the annual matchup between the University of Iowa Hawkeyes and the Iowa State Cyclones.

George Shillcock, a reporter with the Iowa City Press-Citizen, covered the event and noted attendance was comprised of a “crowd of about 100 Republican politicians, their families and supporters.”

According to the Press-Citizen, Scott said during his speech before that teeming crowd of “about 100” people that he was “hellbent” on making sure that Grassley won his election, a curious comment since Grassley has literally never had a close race since he first ran for the U.S. Senate in 1980, steamrolling decades of Democrats by double digits. The Florida senator might as well declare he is “hellbent” on having the sun rise in the east tomorrow morning.

Scott isn’t on the ballot this year, but for an aspirational presidential candidate, winning over the notoriously picky voters in the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses is a non-negotiable rite of passage. Those 2024 contests kick off, after all, in only about 15 months  [shudder…my apologies for doing that calculation but that is, in fact, the math].

On Saturday, The Washington Post covered the GOP’s efforts to find a “midterm reset” and pivot its election messaging from inflation to crime, with the party’s “hopes for a red wave this November dimmed.” The intra-party strife swirling around Scott was a key focus of the article, specifically naming his little jaunt to Iowa as part of what his critics see as misplaced priorities:

Scott, who is not up for reelection, continues to feed frustration by traveling the country, even in these final months, to support his own political ambitions. He attended a $1,000-per-seat fundraising luncheon in Tampa on Friday for his personal political committees, which he has been using to raise his public profile ahead of a potential 2024 presidential campaign, according to an invitation obtained by The Washington Post. On Saturday, he was booked to travel to Iowa — the first-in-the-nation presidential caucus state, where the Senate contest in not considered competitive — to attend a tailgate event before the annual football game between the University of Iowa and Iowa State University.

His critics were also enraged last month when, days after the NRSC changed ad reservations in Nevada, Arizona and Pennsylvania, Scott flew on his private plane via Dublin for a week-long vacation in Italy, according to flight records. Word soon leaked that he was on a yacht.

Scott’s attention might be better focused closer to home. His Sunshine State colleague Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is facing a tough battle against Rep. Val Demings (D-FL), with polls over the last month showing Rubio with only a slim lead within the margin of error or even trailing.

Tags:
Sarah Rumpf - Contributing Editor

Sarah Rumpf joined Mediaite in 2020 and is a Contributing Editor focusing on politics, law, and the media. A native Floridian, Sarah attended the University of Florida, graduating with a double major in Political Science and German, and earned her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the UF College of Law. Sarah's writing has been featured at National Review, The Daily Beast, Reason, Law&Crime, Independent Journal Review, Texas Monthly, The Capitolist, Breitbart Texas, Townhall, RedState, The Orlando Sentinel, and the Austin-American Statesman, and her political commentary has led to appearances on television, radio, and podcast programs across the globe. Follow Sarah on Threads, Twitter, and Bluesky.