Incumbent U.S. Senator Rick Scott was re-elected by the state’s voters on Tuesday, defeating challenger Debbie Mucarsel-Powell. It’ll give another six years in office for Scott, who defeated incumbent Senator Bill Nelson in the 2018 midterm elections. He won with a 55.6% majority, just over a million more votes than Mucarsel-Powell.
Scott, a Republican, handed the Florida Democratic Party another key defeat by beating Mucarsel-Powell, the Democratic nominee. Democrats have not won a statewide race in Florida since 2018, when Nikki Fried was elected Commissioner of Agriculture. Though the election victory of Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2018 was slim, he was re-elected in a landslide in 2022. The same went for Senator Marco Rubio.
“Thank you Florida! I’m honored to serve as your Senator for another 6 years!” Scott tweeted following his victory. “Tomorrow, we begin the fight to Make Washington WORK Again!” Scott will now be part of a newly-formed GOP majority in the Senate, setting up President-elect Donald Trump to pass several key components of his policy platform.
Democrats’ Longshot Hope
Debbie Mucarsel-Powell first ran for office in 2016, failing to win a seat in the Florida state Senate. She then won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018, a seat in which she served for one term until being defeated by Republican Carlos Giménez in 2020. Prior to that, she worked on the presidential campaigns of Democratic candidates John Kerry and Barack Obama.
“I want to thank all the volunteers who knocked on doors, called, texted, worked polling sites, and put their heart into this campaign,” Mucarsel-Powell said in her concession. “I want to thank my family who have always been my biggest supporters, and who I couldn’t have done this without. So many believed what is possible in Florida when we stand up together, and while we lost this battle, our fight is just getting started. Millions of Floridians came out to say no más to Rick Scott, and to anyone who thinks this Latina is giving up on Florida, you haven’t been paying attention.”
The Undefeatable Rick Scott?
Before being elected to the U.S. Senate, Scott served two terms as Florida’s governor from 2011 to 2019. His 2010 election win was narrow, defeating Democrat Alex Sink by a mere 61.5k votes out of over 5.3 million that were cast. In 2014 he won by a similarly narrow 64.1k votes over Democrat Charlie Crist, who served before Scott as a Republican governor.
When Scott ran for Senate in 2018, many polls forecast an uphill battle against Senator Nelson, who in a political career dating back to 1972 had only lost one election (the Democratic gubernatorial primary in 1990). Surely enough, Scott prevailed by a razor-thin margin of 10.0k votes, good for just 0.2% of the overall race. Nelson was ousted from office after three six-year terms in service, giving Republicans both of Florida’s Senate seats.
Election Context
Polls leading up to the 2024 Florida Senate election largely gave Scott the advantage, but placed Mucarsel-Powell within striking distance. A Research Co. poll of 450 likely voters on November 2nd and 3rd gave Scott a seven-point lead, up from a mere four-point advantage given to him by Victory Insights’ poll of 400 likely voters on November 1st and 2nd. Further speculation about Scott’s odds was driven by his failed attempts to seize the top spot in the Senate Republican Faction, having at times branched from party doctrine on key policy issues.
With 99% of the state’s vote reported, The Associated Press reported the race as follows:
- Rick Scott (R) – 55.6% – 5,970,772
- Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D) – 42.8% – 4,594,394
- Ben Everidge (NPA) – 0.6% – 62,531
- Feena Bonoan (L) – 0.5% – 57,198
- Tuan TQ Nguyen (NPA) – 0.5% – 56,4572
