Trump and Scott speak about once a week and on several occasions have talked about the race, according to two sources briefed on the talks. The two have known each other for two decades, and Trump likes Scott’s record as governor and as a health care tycoon.
“We need you in the Senate. We need business guys like you,” Trump told Scott in a recent phone call, said one source who’d been briefed on it, paraphrasing the conversation. The person added that the president had signaled that he would help the Republican governor raise money.
Even without Trump’s urging, Scott has been widely expected to run for Senate as he prepares to leave office after 2018, when he is termed out.
The Trump-Scott team is a logical alliance between two business barons.
Scott chaired a super PAC that promoted Trump’s candidacy during the presidential campaign. Before Florida’s March 15 presidential primary, Scott, a self-styled political outsider, also praised Trump in a USA Today op-ed in which the governor compared his first race to Trump’s. The governor also delivered an address in support of Trump at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, a step many other major GOP figures refused to take.
A Scott bid would be an enormous boon to national Republicans hoping to expand their Senate majority. The party has prioritized winning the seat that is held by Nelson, a politically savvy Democrat who has managed to win three successive elections in the perennial battleground. Nelson is the only statewide elected Democrat in Florida, where Republicans hold majorities in the Legislature and the congressional delegation.
