NRSC head Scott to back GOP incumbents over Trump challengers

Sen. Rick Scott was among former President Donald Trump’s closest allies the past two years. But the Florida Republican pledged on Thursday to back GOP incumbents, even if Trump or his family get involved in the 2022 Senate races.

Scott, now the chair of the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, shrugged off the possibility that former president’s daughter Ivanka Trump could run against Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) or that Trump’s vow to primary Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) will be problematic. He seemed unworried about Trump-backed challengers meddling in GOP primaries.

“I’m supporting the incumbents,” Scott told reporters. He said that he has not spoken to Ivanka Trump or anyone about Rubio possibly getting a primary challenge from her.

“Nobody has talked to me about it at all. Nobody. I’ve tried to call around. Nobody’s said anything about Florida,” Scott said.

Scott’s decision to support incumbents is also new for him. Ever since his first bruising primary for Florida governor in 2010, Scott was opposed to establishment involvement in primary races. As a result, he refrained from ostensibly endorsing Trump in 2016 when Rubio was running against him. But the job of National Republican Senatorial Committee chair is first and foremost protecting incumbent senators who are running for reelection.

His comments are a more firm commitment than he made earlier this month. He told The Washington Post that he was uneasy backing primary challengers and was less committal on whether he would do it: "There's other people in Senate leadership that want to make sure I do. So we'll see."

Scott has a tough job trying to take back the Senate, with Republicans holding more vulnerable seats than Democrats. But there’s still a reasonable path back to the majority. He also has to protect everyone from Rubio to Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), a disparate group of senators with very different stances on Trump and his efforts to contest the election.

Scott, for instance, voted against approving the Electoral College results for Pennsylvania while Rubio voted for it after a deadly riot at the Capitol, eliciting howls from Trump backers. And the issue of Scott’s involvement in primaries takes on particular salience in Florida because his colleague, Rubio, is up for reelection in 2022 and hardcore conservatives want to see him primaried, with some pushing Ivanka Trump.

Scott said he did not regret his vote against approving Pennsylvania’s results and that it has not resulted in hindering his fundraising committee, despite vows from some donors to stay away from giving to those who objected to the election results.

He said he would not judge any of his members that vote to convict Trump in the forthcoming impeachment trial and that “the election is about: What does [Joe] Biden try to do or has done. And what do we stand for?”

“Everybody will have to decide on their own. I think we ought to focus on where we’re going, not the past,” Scott said of impeachment. “Everybody will make their own decision.”

Marc Caputo contributed to this report.