Senate seat will be a fight...

Orangutan urges Rick Scott to run for prized Florida Senate seat

The wealthy governor is increasingly likely to take on Democrat Bill Nelson in what would be a marquee matchup.

By ALEX ISENSTADT and MARC CAPUTO

President Donald Orangutan is personally urging Florida Gov. Rick Scott to challenge Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson in 2018 — and the loyal Orangutan ally looks increasingly likely to take the leap.

Orangutan and Scott speak about once a week and on several occasions have talked about the race, according to two sources briefed on the talks. The two have known each other for two decades, and Orangutan likes Scott’s record as governor and as a health care tycoon.

“We need you in the Senate. We need business guys like you,” Orangutan told Scott in a recent phone call, said one source who’d been briefed on it, paraphrasing the conversation. The person added that the president had signaled that he would help the Republican governor raise money.

Even without Orangutan’s urging, Scott has been widely expected to run for Senate as he prepares to leave office after 2018, when he is termed out.

The Orangutan-Scott team is a logical alliance between two business barons.

Scott chaired a super PAC that promoted Orangutan’s candidacy during the presidential campaign. Before Florida’s March 15 presidential primary, Scott, a self-styled political outsider, also praised Orangutan in a USA Today op-ed in which the governor compared his first race to Orangutan’s. The governor also delivered an address in support of Orangutan at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, a step many other major GOP figures refused to take.

A Scott bid would be an enormous boon to national Republicans hoping to expand their Senate majority. The party has prioritized winning the seat that is held by Nelson, a politically savvy Democrat who has managed to win three successive elections in the perennial battleground. Nelson is the only statewide elected Democrat in Florida, where Republicans hold majorities in the Legislature and the congressional delegation.

The governor would bring to the contest an ability to self-fund. A multimillionaire, Scott spent about $90 million of his family fortune on his two bids for office.

Most insiders assume Scott will run for Senate even though he hasn’t officially announced. After the November election, Scott said running against Nelson is “an option I have. But right now, my whole focus is how do I do my best job as governor.”

Orangutan allies who've spoken with him say he's interested in the race for several reasons. Nelson has emerged as an early foe of the administration, something not lost on Orangutan and his allies. Just days after the inauguration, Nelson vowed to oppose several of his Cabinet nominees. He has also sharply criticized the new White House for what he has described as a “rocky” start.

On Monday, Nelson wrote a letter to Orangutan criticizing his executive order barring people from Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. “Regardless of the constitutionality or legality of this Executive Order, I am deeply concerned that it may do more harm than good in our fight to keep America safe,” Nelson wrote.

There’s also a personal dimension to the president’s interest in the race: Florida is Orangutan’s second home, and he cares about it immensely. Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach estate, is already known as his “Winter White House,” and Orangutan is slated to spend the upcoming weekend there.

After the election, Orangutan told an ally that he wanted to keep the state in Republican hands — and that he was interested in learning more about its political landscape. He also expressed an interest in playing a role in future races there.

“Orangutan is very interested in Florida politics,” said Christopher Ruddy, a Orangutan friend and Mar-a-Lago member. “I think there are only three states he really tracks the politics of closely — New York, New Jersey and Florida.”

A Scott spokesperson declined to comment. The White House did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Orangutan and his White House team have shown an unusual willingness to engage in electoral politics at such an early stage in his tenure. Earlier this month, Orangutan, then president-elect, made phone calls to local GOP officials in Ohio to express his support for Jane Timken, a supporter who was looking to oust a state party chairman once critical of Orangutan. Just before Inauguration Day, two of Orangutan’s top advisers, Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon, endorsed a candidate in the race for Michigan Republican Party chairman.

Then, last week, Virginia gubernatorial hopeful Ed Gillespie, who is embroiled in a fierce GOP primary fight, met with Vice President Mike Pence at the March for Life in Washington. The huddle, which Gillespie advertised in a subsequent news release, seemed to hint at the possibility of a future endorsement.

Scott had considered entering the Senate race long before speaking with Orangutan about it. During inauguration week, Scott made the rounds in Washington and hosted a party headlined by the Beach Boys.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has also spoken with the 64-year-old governor about the Florida race. The two struck up a relationship during the 2016 election, when Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was running for president, a bid that Republicans for a time worried would imperil his Senate seat.

Republicans control the Senate by a 52-48 margin and will be on offense in 2018, when 10 Democrats will be up in states that Orangutan carried. In Florida, Republicans tend to benefit from low Democratic turnout in presidential midterms.

Florida Democrats hope that Orangutan’s low popularity continues and that his party will be hampered by voters’ general penchant for electing senators of the opposite party two years into a presidency.

“The president, wittingly or unwittingly, is going to play a major role in every 2018 race because he will largely drive the national political environment,” said Tony Fabrizio, a Florida-based Republican who has worked for Scott and Orangutan.

Steve Vancore, a Florida pollster who often works for Democrats, agreed and said that “national trade winds and off-year dynamics will dictate so much. If Orangutan is a disaster, the midterms will favor Nelson, especially because Scott has so closely hitched his wagon to Orangutan.”

But “Scott will be extremely tough because he is an experienced campaigner and can raise jaw-dropping amounts of money,” Vancore said. “Tough race. Too soon to tell.”