Florida U.S. Senator Rick Scott on Thursday endorsed Donald Trump for president – bypassing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“I know most of the candidates running for president, and I respect their decision to put themselves through this very difficult process,” Scott wrote in an op-ed published Thursday in Newsweek. “They’ve made their case to voters, laid out their agendas and their plans, and told their stories. Make no mistake: every single one of them would be a better president than Joe Biden. But Republican voters are making their voices heard loud and clear. They want to return to the leadership of Donald Trump.”
Scott’s endorsement was first reported by The Messenger.
The endorsement isn’t considered to be much of a surprise. Scott and DeSantis have never been particularly close, and Trump is dominating the GOP race for president in all national and early state polls.
At the end of Scott’s two terms as governor in 2019 when the transition was being made to DeSantis taking over, Scott made more than 80 state appointments in his last days as governor and missed DeSantis’ inauguration speech, the Tampa Bay Times reported. DeSantis ended up retracting 46 of those appointments.
Then earlier this year, Scott broke with DeSantis after the Florida governor announced an immigration legislative proposal that included a repeal of in-state tuition fee waivers for undocumented immigrants at colleges and universities, a law that Scott signed back in 2014. That proposal never made it into the final immigration bill signed by the governor.
“I’d never demand or even ask that another candidate drop out of a political contest,” Scott writes. “That’s a decision for every candidate to make for themselves. But I’m supporting Donald Trump for president because the stakes are too high.”
A majority of Florida’s 20 GOP members of Congress have endorsed Trump, while only one member, Laurel Lee, has endorsed DeSantis.
Florida’s other GOP U.S. Senator, Marco Rubio, has yet to make an endorsement in the race.
Scott, DeSantis and Trump will all speak at the Republican Party of Florida’s Sunshine Summit this Saturday near Orlando.
This article originally appeared in florida phoenix