Florida Sen. Rick Scott reelected for second term

Florida Sen. Rick Scott, R, has won reelection, defeating former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, D-Fla. The state is a key hold for Republicans as they try to take a majority in the chamber. 

Scott was seeking his second term in the Senate. He was first elected in 2018 after serving two terms as Florida’s governor. Before politics, he was a healthcare executive, a career in which he made a fortune that allowed him to give tens of millions of dollars to his own campaign.

Scott is used to running extraordinarily close races. In 2018, he defeated Democratic incumbent Senator Bill Nelson by about 10,000 votes, or .2%. He won his 2014 governor’s race by 1% and the 2010 governor’s race by 1.2%.

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Scott focused on issues he’s known to talk about in the hallways of Senate office buildings: low taxes, reduced federal spending and stricter border security. 

Mucarsel-Powell served one term as a U.S. Representative, from 2019 to 2021. She immigrated from Ecuador at the age of 14 and has worked in higher education and nonprofits. She talked about border security and standing up to dictators, something Cubans and Venezuelans in Florida want to hear.

Given that they were vying to represent a state with so many retirees, both candidates said they’d work to protect social security and medicare.

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Scott is also vying to replace Mitch McConnell as the Republican Senate leader.

According to OpenSecrets, the spending in this contest was nowhere near as much as some other close races. Scott raised more than $40 million and Mucarsel-Powell raised over $31 million.