Senator Rick Scott, the Florida Republican who has presented himself as a champion of the MAGA right wing in the run-up to President-elect Donald J. Trump’s second term, threw his support behind Lara Trump, the president-elect’s daughter-in-law, to replace his colleague Senator Marco Rubio.
“Lara Trump would be a GREAT Senator and represent Floridians well,” Mr. Scott, who lost his bid to serve as majority leader this week, wrote on social media on Thursday.
Mr. Trump tapped Mr. Rubio on Wednesday to serve as his secretary of state, and, if confirmed, Mr. Rubio will have to step down from his Senate seat. Gov. Ron DeSantis, Republican of Florida — who suffered a humiliating defeat to Mr. Trump in the party’s presidential primary race this year — has the power to appoint a replacement for Mr. Rubio until 2026, when a special election would be held for the final two years of Mr. Rubio’s term.
Ms. Trump, the co-chair of the Republican National Committee, said in an interview on Fox Business on Thursday that she had not spoken to Mr. DeSantis about appointing a replacement, but she nodded to support she had received from other Republican lawmakers, including Senator Katie Britt of Alabama and Representative Anna Paulina Luna of Florida. “If this were something that I’m asked to do,” she said, “I would seriously consider it.”
“I don’t think you’ll find a person who is more in line with Donald Trump’s America-first values and policies than me,” Ms. Trump said.
Ms. Trump, who is married to Mr. Trump’s middle son, Eric Trump, was one of two handpicked allies of the president-elect — along with Michael Whatley — to lead a takeover of the Republican National Committee this year, gutting the party apparatus and remaking it in their image.
Ms. Trump also served as a surrogate for her father-in-law on the campaign trail this year, repeating his lies that the 2020 election had been stolen from him and raising the specter of Democrats’ cheating in 2024.
Source: Elections - nytimes.com
