Florida Senator Scott: New Hampshire Is GOP's Best Chance For 2026 Senate Pickup

By Leonard Robinson, NH Journal

Sen. Rick Scott assured reporters in Concord Friday that he is not running for president in 2028.

But given the Granite State’s first-in-the-nation GOP presidential primary — and the Florida senator’s rollout of a national “Rescuing America” affordability initiative three days earlier — he can’t blame people for asking.

Scott told the press his keynote speech at the GOP’s annual Amos Tuck fundraising dinner is part of an effort to support Republican candidates in battleground states like Georgia, Michigan and Iowa — and definitely New Hampshire. He called the race between U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas (D) and John Sununu the GOP’s best chance to flip a seat in the U.S. Senate.

“You have a great Republican governor, and you’ve had Republican governors for quite a few years, so it’s every reason to believe that you can win here,” Scott said. “The governor’s on the ticket, so that’s going to get the vote out. Sununu’s known, his family’s known here in New Hampshire, so I think that gives us a good opportunity.”

Sen. Rick Scott speaks to reporters before the NHGOP’s annual Amos Tuck Dinner in Concord, N.H. on Sept. 18, 2026.(PHOTO: Leonard Robinson)

Scott chaired the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) in 2022, when Republicans failed to flip a single seat. In his speech Friday, he told Granite State Republicans that fulfilling President Donald Trump’s agenda rests with voters who maintain a GOP majority.

“Anything you like about the Trump agenda is dead if we don’t control the House and Senate,” Scott said. “We’ve got a chance to pick up a seat here.”

Republicans have another advantage, Scott added: the national Democratic Party’s treatment of the state’s first-in-the-nation primary.

“It’s a slap in the face that people don’t think that New Hampshire represents the Democratic Party,” Scott told reporters. “I’d take it as a slight if I was here.”

Scott also talked about his experience in Florida politics, a state that has gone from a purple swing state exemplified by the 2000 presidential race to a red state where Democrats are struggling to be competitive.

In 2010, Scott said he decided to run for governor of Florida after seeing the state’s dire economic position.

“We had lost 832,000 jobs in four years, home prices had dropped in half, more people left Florida in 2010 than moved in, taxes were going up and we were running big deficits each year,” Scott said.

As governor, Scott said he balanced Florida’s 4,000-line budget using the line-item veto and skills that he acquired as CEO of Columbia/HCA, a for-profit hospital company that had more than 285,000 employees. “You guys should have (a line-item veto) here if you want to spend even less money,” Scott said.

When speaking of New Hampshire, Scott continued to tout Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s performance while contrasting her record with that of Democrat Cinde Warmington.

“Your governor is trying to control costs, give people jobs,” Scott said. “You have a great education system. You’ve got universal education choice, which is the best in the world and it’s what’s going to force public education to be better. You’ve got the safest state in the country.”

Democrats, Scott said, have become increasingly out of touch with the electorate, largely because of their unwillingness to distance themselves from far-left voices such as controversial podcaster Hasan Piker.

“Hasan Piker runs the Democrat Party right now,” Scott said. “He’s called for me to be murdered. He’s called for all capitalists in this country to be murdered. This guy’s crazy and they’re campaigning with him.”

Scott, who launched an ambitious “Rescuing America” economic messaging plan days earlier, touted Sununu as a reliable voice for spending cuts and reducing the country’s $40 trillion debt.

“Inflation is tied to government spending. $40 trillion dollars of debt, $2 trillion a year of new debt every year,” Scott said. “You’ve got to have people up there that understand budgets, are independent and remember who they represent.”

“That’s what John’s going to do,” Scott said. “He’s done it. If you look at his reputation, I was not up there when he was, but his reputation is all of those things, and so this really matters.”

Adding to the 2028 vibes, Scott also stopped by Saint Anselm College on Friday, home of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics, where he spoke to the College Republicans chapter.

About 50 students attended. Sources told NHJournal that the senator was “gracious with his time” and spoke at length with many students individually.

“It’s always a good time speaking with college students,” Scott told reporters.

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.