Rick Scott: GOP Will Hold '52-Plus' Senate Seats After Midterms (Newsmax)
By Sandy Fitzgerald | Sunday, 30 October 2022 12:14 PM EDT
Republicans will have "52-plus" Senate seats after the upcoming midterm elections, including victories in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada, as well as other states, Sen. Rick Scott, who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said Sunday.
"Herschel Walker will win in Georgia," the Florida Republican told CNN's "State of the Union." "We're going to keep all 21 of ours. [Mehmet] Oz is going to win against [John] Fetterman in Pennsylvania. Adam Laxalt will win in Nevada."
Scott on Sunday asserted wins for GOP nominees Don Bolduc in New Hampshire, Tiffany Smiley in Washington, and Joe O'Dea in Colorado, even though they're now trailing in the polls.
The wins will come, said Scott, as "Democrats can't run on anything they've done," and Americans aren't happy with their party's performance as a result.
"They don't like high inflation, gas prices, food prices up," said Scott. "The public doesn't like an open border. They don't like high crime. That's what the Democrats are known for. They've done all these things. Democrats did it. They did it and they want to run away from it."
The FiveThirtyEight model is now suggesting Democrats have a 53% chance of keeping their Senate majority to 47% for Republicans, but many poll numbers are starting to shift nationally, and the GOP is highly favored to win control of the House, if not both chambers.
Scott, also appearing Sunday on ABC's "This Week," said that as a result of the high inflation and crime rates, as well as the border situation, the Democrats are due for a "rude awakening," as such policies are "not what the American public wants."
He also said that while there still are disputes over former President Donald Trump's 2020 loss, including with several GOP candidates denying the election's legitimacy, he said his goal is to make sure people feel comfortable that there are free and fair elections.
"What I tell everybody, if you want to make sure we have a fair and free election, go vote," said Scott. "Be a poll watcher. I'm optimistic."
And if Republicans take back the Senate, they will work to get inflation down and to secure the border, said Scott.
"We have to live within our means, and we [must] get a secured border so we can get some immigration reform done," said Scott.
Scott, on both programs, spoke out about the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul, in their San Francisco home this past week.
"It's disgusting," he told CNN. "This violence is horrible. That's happened. We had a door knocker in Florida that was attacked. This stuff has to stop."
He noted that when he took his part as head of the senatorial committee last year, he went to the Federal Elections Commission and asked if candidates and senators could use campaign dollars to pay for security.
"House and Senate members don't have security, most of them, outside of D.C.," said Scott. "We can have a heated conversation about the issues, but this violence has got to stop. This is horrible. My heart goes out to Paul Pelosi, and I hope he has a full recovery."