The Florida Republican primary for U.S. Senate continues to heat up and a candidate says the Sunshine State will flip Democratic because of Rick Scott. The primary challenger added that Senator Rick Scott has “defrauded and deceived his way to the top.”
Republican candidate Keith Gross has been saying since the start of the campaign: should Rick Scott somehow be the Republican nominee, Florida’s U.S. Senate seat will turn blue. Gross also said Rick Scott has “turned his back” on political friends including former President Donald Trump.
The upcoming 2024 elections have Democrats gearing up to turn Florida blue, with Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried leading a statewide tour right now. While Governor DeSantis and the legislature have been targets, Senator Scott will be high on the list as well.
Gross has called the incumbent Senator “Slick Rick” because is “known for his corrupt practices and self-serving political maneuvers, is proving to be a liability for the Republican Party.” He added that Scott “is incapable of energizing the base and turning out the vote.”
The Keith Gross for Florida campaign is also pointing out multiple polls suggesting that Florida is one of the top states that could see a Senate seat flip in 2024, courtesy of the controversial political agenda proposed by Senator Scott, including targeting Medicare and Social Security.
26-year Navy veteran Phil Ehr has entered the race, knowing the vulnerable position Republicans are currently in, and recent polling conducted by the Ehr campaign shows serious vulnerabilities for Scott. The poll released by the Ehr campaign showed that despite only 27% of voters recognizing his name, the Democrat would still beat Rick Scott in the general election if it were held tomorrow. The final tally after some test messaging in that poll shows the Democrat with 46% to Republican Scott’s 44%.
Similarly, the Keith Gross for Florida campaign said they ran a test TV ad in the Tampa metro area for 1 week at the announcement of Gross’s candidacy. Afterward, voters were asked whom they would choose if the election was tomorrow. In Tampa, 7% more voters said they would vote for Gross when compared with other areas where the TV ad did not run.
The Republican challenger said if Rick Scott can lose 7% of the vote with a 1-week TV ad by an upstart campaign, imagine how vulnerable Rick Scott will be as advertising expands in the coming months. Gross, who has never held office previously and was unknown to most voters in the state, has increased his name recognition by 16% in just a few months according to his campaign.
Senator Scott, who has never faced a serious challenger, won his past elections by a thin margin. Meanwhile, GOP Senator Marco Rubio and Governor Ron DeSantis both had significant victories. “Slick Rick has done more than enough to hurt Florida, the United States, and the Republican party,” the Gross campaign said. “His track record alone will discourage record amounts of people from voting for him, no matter how desperate they are.”
Over the course of the next year, the Gross campaign believes they can pull enough votes to win the Republican primary. The campaign also has a response to questions about whether candidate Gross can raise enough money to convince voters to drop Senator Scott. That may not be as big a problem for Gross, who has already spent nearly a million dollars of his own money, and he has indicated that he plans to spend whatever is necessary to win.
As an entrepreneur and prosecutor, Gross wants to give back to his state and provide fresh leadership that can get things done in Washington.
The campaign is making it clear: Keith Gross, like many versed Republicans and even Democrats, knows that Rick Scott has done too much harm and Florida will turn blue should there not be a better option for Republicans to vote for.
The only way Florida turns blue is if they cheat like they did in 2020.
Keith WHO? Obviously NOT a Reagan Republican.
Are you saying that every Florida GOP candidate that won their seats in 2020 did not win? Lets investigate.
Or that Trump didn’t win Florida in 2020?
Republicans are 90% antiamericans, and the rest is straight useless. They’re liars, thoroughly corrupt, mobbed up, and when they have an ideology (can selfishness be an ideology?) they invariably choose Fascism. They are willfully ignorant, anti-democracy, racist, homophobic, xenophobic, hate our constitutions (Florida’s and the Bill of Rights), and just for symmetry’s sake, misogynistic.
They’ve given us the worst economy in the USA (our inflation is twice the nation’s) and don’t believe they should be subject to our laws, and are completely visionless – and they’re getting worse.
Here in Florida we are cursed with the worst and most corrupt gang of neer-do-wells in a long spell. What a Rogue’s gallery of fools! DiSantis, Gaetz, Rubio, Scott etc etc. There is some hope for the future though. Frost, Mankowitz and a few others of these Freshman politicos on the Democratic side and we could very well turn at least a light shade of blue. It’s refreshing to see the good guys finding their courage of conviction and speaking truth to power, at last! I’m an Englewood resident and a retired combat Marine. The fighting spirit has finally infiltrated our party and these young hopefulls will perhaps remind Floridians that we are in the throes of anti American sentiment like never before. I always thought that with age comes wisdom but I haven’t spied too many wise leaders in years here in Disneyland. We have to come to our senses and recognize the FACT that we are being led by a gang without a purpose other than prurient self interest. It’s scary.