Rick Scott Well Positioned to Beat Bill Nelson in FL Senate Race
“He’s putting up the type of numbers that can tilt the whole playing field”
Florida’s Republican governor Rick Scott is challenging Democrat Bill Nelson for the U.S. Senate this fall. Nelson has been in office since 2001. The GOP believes this is one of the seats they can pick up and they have good reasons to think so.
Scott currently has a very slim lead in the Real Clear Politics average of polls, but more importantly, he is polling well in key demographics in the state.
Anthony Man reports at the Sun-Sentinel:
Rick Scott leads Bill Nelson in poll of South Florida Hispanic voters
Gov. Rick Scott has a slight lead over U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson among Hispanic voters in South Florida, a new poll finds.
The WSCV-TELEMUNDO 51 Poll found Republican Scott with support of 42 percent of Hispanic likely voters in Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties.
Democrat Nelson has 39 percent.
Another 19 percent of South Florida Hispanics were undecided.
The poll of South Florida Hispanic voters was conducted over landlines and cellphones June 24-29 by Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy. The Jacksonville-based firm is a highly regarded polling firm, and it has a “B+” grade in the poll ratings from the political data website Fivethirtyeight.com…
Multiple polls have shown the Scott-Nelson race is a nail biter, and Hispanic voters are a significant voting bloc in Florida. Results from the southern part of the state don’t necessarily indicate what will happen in other areas, such as Central Florida with its growing Puerto Rican population.
A recent statewide poll of Puerto Ricans had good news for Scott: He was better known than Nelson and had higher approval ratings.
Among Cuban-Americans, Scott is ahead 58 percent to 30 percent, with 12 percent undecided.
Scott is also sitting on a massive and growing campaign war chest which has Democrats rightly concerned.
Matt Dixon writes at Politico:
Democrats fret as Scott’s cash haul comes into full view
Democrats up and down the midterm ticket in Florida are starting to worry as they look at the green wave of cash that Florida Gov. Rick Scott is taking in for his U.S. Senate campaign.
“He’s putting up the type of numbers that can tilt the whole playing field,” said state Rep. Evan Jenne, a Democrat from deep blue Broward County…
The surge to Scott’s campaign, as documented in new campaign finance reports, puts stress on national Democrats eager to knock him off. Groups like the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee are fighting Senate battles in swing states across the country, but will need to keep serious resources in Florida to help counter Scott’s spending.
Scott, a Republican worth $232 million, and two committees supporting his bid raised just over $20 million last quarter, according to new campaign finance reports. That number does not include the personal money Scott has likely put into his campaign, a number that has not yet been reported.
Scott’s official campaign alone raised $10.7 million, a massive quarterly haul, according to campaign finance reports filed this week.
If Scott wins, Marco Rubio will become the senior U.S. senator in Florida. It’s a nightmare scenario for Democrats that is looking more likely to become a reality.
Featured image via YouTube.
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Comments
As a long time resident of Florida and warching this race close, if things remain the same as they do today, Gov. Scott will easily be Senator Scott.
Billy Nelson looks worn out and dried up and spit out. He looks like he is forced to run and is putting in a have hearted attempt to being senator.
From a distance Nelson comes across like Pelosi – someone who is way beyond their prime and simply wants to hold onto power. I find it hard to believe either of them could work their way through a piece of complex legislation and perhaps just either follow party lines or rely on staff.
Not everyone ages in a way that so obviously changes their mental acuity. And I’m trying not to be denigrating. But if it happens, it happens. Time to take your millions you made in DC and retire.
This race is a toss-up. And, it will likely stay that way. Ignore the polls.
turnout is key
Rick Scott is perceived as having done a good job during last year’s hurricanes. Even the new resident Puerto Rican’s have a good impression of him.
Bill Nelson looks old, has been ineffective as a Senator, and is a white man representing a party that hates white men.
Normally, it’s very difficult to unseat a Senator due to all of the fundraising that they get, but Nelson should go down if this is not a democrat wave year.
Scott has steamrolled Billy in advertising, events, money, phone calling, walking and so forth. Nelson did not even get a campaign manager until April. He has been slow on the draw. In fact, Gov. Scott has a higher name recognition as compared with Billy Nelson. Nelson has been an elected official for some 42 years now!
He is running a boring and desperate campaign. If there is not a change he is gone. He is probably gone anyway.
Has anyone looked at the effects of all the Puerto Ricans who have moved to Florida on the election?
It depends on whether they become citizens of the state and register to vote. If this happens, it will shift a pretty evenly divided state into the blue, party wise.
On the other hand, the FEMA benefits are starting to dry up, for Puerto Rican refugees. This might spur an exodus from Florida, to states having much better welfare benefits than Florida does. We’ll have to wait and see what happens.
The Puerto Rican registration has been mainly NPA. Since 2016 the total number of democrats has decreased by over 120,000 while the GOP has increased by 27,000.
Scott is viewed more favorably with Hispanic voters then Nelson.
I believe that the mood in the country is for “Someone new” and it ain’t Nelson. Feinstein in CA has run into the same problem albeit only with the endorsement of her state’s party. Crowley in NY is similar to Cantor in VA and due to low turnout in the primary, a loon got nominated. I think that when the votes are counted Scott will win big. Nelson has become a four button tape player and when you ask him one of the four big questions concerning our nation you get one of the DNC’s responses. He hasn’t had an original thought is so long that he needs prompt cards to fill out his driver’s license form!
Do we need another anti-gun RINO in Congress?
Or did we all forget his reaction to the highly suspect school shooting?
Better than Nelson. A ham sandwich is better than Nelson.
It is true that Scott signed that bill banning bump stocks and raising the age to purchase long arms from 18 to 21. Normally, such an action would be reason enough to vote against him. However, the situation in the United States at this time is such that we must vote Republican across the board in November for every office, no matter what, even for RINOs. We are in the early “cold” stages of a civil war. There are three sides shaping up: the elite establishment deep state globalist types (of both parties), the left wing moon-bat Anti-American communist types, and the ordinary American people. I count myself as an ordinary American and I very much want to win this war without having to fire a shot, if possible. In order to do that, the Democrats need to be crushed. They have been in near open rebellion since Trump was elected. They need to be slapped down and slapped down hard. We need more Republican votes in the U.S. Senate to help Trump drain the swamp by getting his executive branch appointments confirmed and to ram through judicial appointments. More Republican numbers in the Senate would help move national concealed carry reciprocity forward. After we crush the Democrats/communists, then we can turn our attention to the RINOs. Until then, we have to pick off scumbag RINOs as targets of opportunity in primary elections, here and there, as we are able to. But in this election cycle, if a Republican makes it past the primary and gets the GOP nomination, we should vote for them in November even if they’re a RINO. In this case at this time, the strategic benefits to the pro-Second Amendment side of replacing Bill Nelson with Rick Scott outweigh the “message sending” benefits of denying that Senate seat to Scott due to his signature on the bump stock ban and 21 year old age to purchase requirement.
Looks aside, as a Florida Voter, I only have to look at the appalling record of Bill Nelson to know that he is an empty suit and New World Order Globalist who has put the demoncRAT Party over Country from the beginning of his first term.
He is one of the last remaining representatives of the Donkey Party who voted to pass Obamacare that has been unraveling like a cheap suit since it passed.
Nelson is another “Gun Grabber” who would pass a Gun Confiscation Law in a heartbeat because he is nothing more than a shill for Chuckles Schumer and hasn’t had an original thought during his entire political career. The proof of that is for someone to find a bill that he sponsored, collected support, and got passed during his 3 terms in the Senate.
On the Issues rates him a Lefty Liberal.
Bill Nelson Votes:
Path to citizenship with fines & English proficiency. (Oct 2012)
Voted YES on continuing federal funds for declared “sanctuary cities”. (Mar 2008)
Voted YES on establishing a Guest Worker program. (May 2006)
Voted YES on giving Guest Workers a path to citizenship. (May 2006)
Cover child resident aliens under Medicaid and SCHIP. (May 2005)
Voted NO on banning partial birth abortions except for maternal life. (Mar 2003)
Voted NO on restricting UN funding for population control policies. (Mar 2009)
Voted NO on paying down federal debt by rating programs’ effectiveness. (Mar 2007)
Voted YES on prohibiting foreign/UN aid that restricts US gun ownership. (Sep 2007)
Voted NO on require photo ID (not just signature) for voter registration. (Feb 2002)
Voted FOR reauthorizing Ex-Im Bank. (Oct 2015)
Voted FOR Net Neutrality
http://www.ontheissues.org/Senate/Bill_Nelson.htm
If you ask the average Florida voter from Key West to Pensacola and everyone in between to name any accomplishments of Billy Nelson, the answer would be silence. He is about as useful in the US Senate as a snowblower is here in the Sunshine State.
As a Floridian with a Concealed Weapons Permit, I wrote to Senator Nelson asking him to vote for the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act – S.466. I explained that while my Florida CWP is valid in more than 30 states, it is a felony for me to possess a firearm in many others. My Constitutional right to keep and bear arms were invalid in those states, contrary to the 14th Amendment equal protection and privileges and immunities clauses.
https://constitution.laws.com/states-rights
Nelson’s response was that he was loath to infringe on states’ rights and would not vote for the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act. Therefore, I cannot vote for Nelson for any office.
Goodbye, Billy–don’t let the door etc !!! ABJ
As a new Florida resident my vote will go for Scott, even as I hold my nose.
Every 5.5 years, Nelson would join Republicans on a few token “conservative” issues in order to pretend to be a “moderate.” He would then go back to doing whatever Harry Reid told him to do.
In the last 5 years, however, he’s gone Full Resistance and has nothing to run on except Obamacare and Trump Derangement. I don’t believe it will be enough this year.
This is great news for The Gunshine State.
Please do not vote for Rick Scott.
There are so many crooked or near crooked things he has done .
In charge of Medicare fraud that HCR had to pay the highest fine for. He knew it was being done.
Pushed for extended spraying for Zika
The company used is under his wife’s name.
There are many crooked deals.
All employees have to take an hour + ethics test because of him.
Please do not vote for Rick Scott