Conservative Tom Cotton joins Marco Rubio in Boca Raton to boost Rick Scott reelection

U.S. Sen Rick Scott, leading his opponent but hovering below 50% in most polls, campaigned with two of his Republican colleagues as he works to close the deal with early voting underway in Florida.

U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Tom Cotton of Arkansas vouched for Scott’s conservative bona fides, and invoked the name of Florida’s most prominent Republican, former President Donald Trump, to sell Scott’s reelection.

Without a Republican majority including Scott, it would be impossible for Trump to implement his policies if he’s reelected president, they said.

“We know Donald Trump is going to be the next president and we’re gonna help him here in Florida. If he gets to Washington and he doesn’t have a Republican Senate … none of the stuff that Trump wants to do will happen,” Rubio said. “They will not give him a team to get the job done. They will try to paralyze his administration if they don’t try to impeach them again.”

Scott, too, invoked the Republican presidential candidate.

“We will win the state and Donald Trump will be sworn in on January 20th,” Scott said. “So we’re gonna get our votes out. Donald Trump will be the next president. We’re gonna have a majority in the Senate, the majority of the House, and we’re gonna turn this country around.”

A life-size cardboard cutout of the former president was on a table at the front of the venue, as if Trump was looking over the crowd

Vote now

The intentions of close to 200 people who packed The Griddle Restaurant, a Boca Raton breakfast and lunch spot, weren’t in doubt.

But Scott, Rubio and Cotton said intentions aren’t enough. They urged supporters to vote now, and not wait.

“The most important thing is vote,” Scott said.

Early voting started Monday in most of Florida. Scott took his own advice, voting earlier in the day in Naples — accompanied by another celebrity politician, former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich — before heading east for the afternoon event in Boca Raton.

“This election is not on November 5th. The election ends on November 5th. It starts today at the latest,” Cotton said.

“Leave here right now, leave here right now and go vote, go early vote. Bank your vote. Don’t count on everything being fine on Election Day. You may have a flat tire, an emergency or work. You may have a parent who’s sick or a kid who’s sick. Get out and vote today so Rick Scott and Donald Trump and their campaigns can go down to the next person on the list,” Cotton said.

He added some urgency, pointing to the disruptions for people affected by hurricanes Helene and Milton.

People may be occupied with concerns other than voting. Some people may have misplaced their ballots, he said; others may have left the state.

Nearing an end

It’s the stage of an election when candidates are forced more on making sure supporters actually carry through with their intentions and cast ballots and less on persuasion.

Both sides are campaigning via 30-second TV ads, both to sell themselves and tear down supporters. A Scott ad shows him being pushed in the poll by his grandchildren.

A spot from former U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, the Democratic Senate candidate, shows Scott’s head on a snake slithering around spreading unpopular policies. Scott said he hadn’t seen the ad and didn’t have a response. “Nope. She’s silly.”

State Rep. Mike Caruso, a Palm Beach County Republican, said he thinks Trump and Scott could win the county. That would solidify a major transformation of the once reliably Democratic county, which Gov. Ron DeSantis narrowly won in 2022 when Democratic turnout collapsed.

“It’s been turning redder every day,” Caruso said. “My team has knocked on about 30,000 doors this campaign. We’re still doing it every day. For the last month and a half we’ve been (contacting no party affiliation voters) and soft Democrats. I find them very frustrated with things on a national scale.”

A poll released Monday by the University of North Florida Public Opinion Research Lab showed Scott leading Mucarsel-Powell 49% to 46%. That’s within the margin of error for the poll, plus or minus 4 percentage points. The survey of 977 likely Florida voters was conducted Oct. 7 through Oct. 18 with calls to landlines and cellphone numbers.

That’s typical poll performance for Scott, who often does not break 50% in pre-election polling, but goes on to win narrow election victories, twice for governor and once for U.S. Senate.

In the presidential race in Florida, Trump was ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris, 53% to 43%.

“At just three percentage points, Rick Scott’s lead is significantly narrower than Trump’s, similar to what we saw back in July,” Michael Binder, faculty director of the public opinion lab and a UNF political scientist, said in a statement about the poll results. “Much like the rest of the country, Trump is running notably ahead of Senate candidates in the same state.”

Democratic challenger

Rubio said Mucarsel-Powell is radical and a leftist.

“I’m telling you that the differences could not be starker and the stakes could not be higher,” he said.

Cotton, too, said “the choice could not be more stark. You have Rick Scott, who will stand with you, protect your interests and help you and your family and your communities achieve your dreams and your aspirations, and you have a radical left-wing Democrat who voted to impeach Donald Trump.”

Mucarsel-Powell campaign spokesperson Riya Vashi said Cotton wouldn’t help Scott win reelection.

“Rick Scott can invite as many of his extremist friends to come campaign with him as he wants, but nothing will change the fact that Floridians know he’s a thief and are more than ready to put an end to his 14 years of failure. And honestly, who can blame them? At every turn imaginable, self-serving Scott has embraced extremism and prioritized his own political gain over the well-being of the very people he was elected to represent,” she said via email.

Vashi said Florida said voters are supporting Mucarsel-Powell because “Florida needs a senator who will deliver resources, not more talk.”

Friendly territory

Naheed Khan, who has owned The Griddle for 30 years, closed early Monday so tables could be moved aside and the venue could be readied for the senators.

She said it was “absolutely” worth forgoing the day’s lunch sales. “I am spending my time and money and everything I have to save this country. And I believe Rick Scott is very important to help do that.

“I’m an America first, ultra MAGA,” she said. “President Trump is the only way we can save this world.”

Khan, 68, who emigrated from Pakistan in 1980, said she has Democratic and independent customers, in addition to Republicans, but said she’s lost some customers over her political views. She’s active in Club 47, the big pro-Trump political organization based in Palm Beach County.

She pointed a visitor to what she described as her “ultra MAGA deplorable wall,” which showcased pictures of her with many Republican notables, including Gov. Ron DeSantis and Mike Lindell, the election denier better known as the “My Pillow guy” from his TV ads.

Friendly questions

The senators used the crowd as a backdrop for a live interview segment on Fox, a favorite news source for Republicans.

Though the campaign said the senators would answer questions after the rally from mainstream news reporters, questioning was stopped after one inquiry, about whether any of the senators were concerned about Trump discussing Arnold Palmer’s genitalia and his frequent use of the s-word, an epithet for feces, in his public conversations.

“So we’re, we’re gonna do everything we can to make sure Donald Trump is the next president because we’ve got to change the direction of this country. Thanks everybody for being here,” he said.

Aides said no further questions would be allowed, physically blocking reporters from access to the senators.

Anthony Man can be reached at moc.lenitnesnus@nama and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.