With a Republican Senate up for grabs, Florida’s Rubio and Scott head to Georgia

Florida’s two Republican U.S. senators are getting involved in the high-stakes Georgia Senate runoff elections, where a GOP victory could elevate Rick Scott and Marco Rubio’s profiles — and their potential long-term presidential aspirations.

Rubio will attend a “Save Our Majority” rally with GOP Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in suburban Atlanta on Wednesday, the first joint appearance of the two Georgia Republican Senate candidates since the Nov. 3 election ended with neither incumbent winning a majority. Perdue will face Democrat Jon Ossoff and Loeffler will try to beat Democrat Raphael Warnock in the Jan. 5 runoffs.

And Sen. Rick Scott will head to Georgia on Thursday, shortly after he’s expected to become head of the Senate Republicans’ fundraising arm for the 2022 election cycle, to raise money for Loeffler and Perdue.

“Georgia is the firewall against the radical agenda of the far left,” Rubio tweeted on Saturday.

Scott had also begun weighing in. “Chuck Schumer, Bernie Sanders and the Radical Left are heading to Georgia with full force,” he tweeted on Sunday. “Everyone needs to do what they can to support Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue and make sure we don’t let the Radical Left take the Senate!”

Control of the U,S. Senate is widely seen as the most important prize left on the political battlefield, and could dramatically change President-elect Joe Biden’s chances of passing meaningful legislation. The involvement of Rubio and Scott in the Georgia Senate elections, which are expected to be close, also gives the pair the extra visibility within the national GOP ahead of a possible 2024 presidential run. Scott is seen as an effective fundraiser for the party while Rubio, who frequently travels to campaign with his Senate colleagues, can command an audience among the party faithful.

They’ll be far from alone in Georgia. Other prominent Republicans from around the country are expected to campaign there, including South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott. Prominent Republicans like former UN ambassador Nikki Haley and the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr. have already highlighted the race, and are likely to campaign in person.

A Democratic consultant working on one of the Georgia Senate races said the runoff elections are the unofficial beginning of the 2024 GOP presidential primary. A GOP victory in both races — and who gets credit for it — could help someone like Rubio or Scott in what’s expected to be a crowded field.

The X-factor for any 2024 hopeful is President Donald Trump’s plans. Trump hasn’t conceded to Biden, though he considered a 2024 bid over the weekend with members of his inner circle, according to multiple media reports. Rubio and Scott also haven’t acknowledged Biden’s victory before Trump concedes, which could risk alienating his supporters.

“The Senate obviously is the most important thing that we could keep, so he’s going to be doing everything he can to make sure that the GOP holds the majority there,” said Rubio campaign spokesperson Nick Iacovella. “He’s a well-known figure in the Republican Party among voters and we have this vision to become a more pro-worker party. That becomes very hard to do if you’re in the minority given what we’ve seen from the Democrats.”

Rep. Matt Gaetz, a North Florida Republican who was one of Trump’s most vociferous supporters, talked about the Georgia special election on his podcast Monday, attacking Gov. Brian Kemp’s decision to appoint Loeffler to the seat last year, a move that he said hurt the party’s chances in 2020.

“The selfishness of Governor Kemp, the singular focus to help Kelly Loeffler over President Trump, over the Republican Party, has now put us in a position where quite literally some special election that we’re going to have in Georgia is all that stands between us and socialism,” Gaetz said.

The Georgia races will be a hyper-partisan fight where local issues will likely take a backseat to the national ambitions of both parties.

After a better-than-expected Election Day performance, Senate Republicans will likely hold 50 seats while Democrats effectively control 48 seats. A victory for Ossoff and Warnock would give Democrats 50 senators, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris in the position of casting any tie-breaking votes, handing Democrats a slim Senate majority.

Loeffler, who faced a tough primary challenge from pro-Trump Congressman Doug Collins, and Perdue are appealing to the GOP base even though the presidential election is over. On Monday, they released a joint statement calling on Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to resign as Georgia seemed poised to hold a recount of ballots cast for president.

“There have been too many failures in Georgia elections this year and the most recent election has shined a national light on the problems,” Loeffer and Perdue said of Raffensperger, a fellow Republican. “While blame certainly lies elsewhere as well, the buck ultimately stops with the secretary of state. He has failed the people of Georgia, and he should step down immediately.”

Raffensperger replied that he does not intend to step down.

“My job is to follow Georgia law and see to it that all legal votes, and no illegal votes, are counted properly and accurately,” Raffensperger said in a statement. “As a Republican, I am concerned about Republicans keeping the U.S. Senate. I recommend that Senators Loeffler and Perdue start focusing on that.”

Trump is insisting he will win Georgia despite providing no evidence of election fraud. Biden was leading Trump in Georgia by about 11,000 votes on Monday afternoon.

“Georgia will be a big presidential win, as it was the night of the Election!” Trump tweeted Monday, referring to initial vote counts on Election Day that had him ahead but did not include mail-in votes that favored Democrats.

Ossoff and Warnock haven’t been shy about emphasizing that the result will determine control of the Senate. Republicans have historically won statewide races in Georgia. The last Democrat in the U.S. Senate from the state, Zell Miller, supported President George W. Bush and didn’t seek reelection in 2004.

“We can make the next 4 years the most productive for Civil and Voting Rights since 1964-65,” Ossoff tweeted on Sunday. “But only if we win the Senate.”

Chris Hartline, a spokesperson for Scott, said Georgia voters who aren’t hardcore supporters of either party will be drawn to electing Republicans as a check on Biden.

“I think you saw a lot of ticket-splitting and whether that was conscious or not, in a lot of ways, voters understand the benefit of divided government,” Hartline said. “I think if there’s a Democratic president with a Republican Senate, that’s a check on the more progressive impulses of the party.”

Miami Herald reporter Ana Ceballos contributed to this report.

This story was originally published November 9, 2020 at 6:39 PM.