fbpx
Wikipedia

Rick Scott

January 19, 2024

This article is about the American politician and businessman. For other people with similar names, see Richard Scott (disambiguation).

Richard Lynn Scott (né Myers; born December 1, 1952) is an American attorney, businessman, and politician who has been the junior United States senator from Florida since 2019.[4][5] A member of the Republican Party, he was the 45th governor of Florida from 2011 to 2019.

Rick Scott
Official portrait, 2019
United States Senator
from Florida
Assumed office
January 8, 2019
Serving with Marco Rubio
Preceded byBill Nelson
Chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee
In office
January 3, 2021 – January 3, 2023
LeaderMitch McConnell
Preceded byTodd Young
Succeeded bySteve Daines
45th Governor of Florida
In office
January 4, 2011 – January 7, 2019[a]
LieutenantJennifer Carroll (2011–2013)
None (2013–2014)
Carlos Lopez-Cantera (2014–2019)
Preceded byCharlie Crist
Succeeded byRon DeSantis
Personal details
Born
Richard Lynn Myers

(1952-12-01) December 1, 1952 (age 71)
Bloomington, Illinois, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
Spouse
​
(m. 1972)​
Children2
Residence(s)Naples, Florida, U.S.
EducationUniversity of Missouri–Kansas City (BS)
Southern Methodist University (JD)
Signature
WebsiteSenate website
Military service
Branch/serviceUnited States Navy
Years of service1971–1974[2]
RankPetty officer third class[3]
UnitUSS Glover (FF-1098)
Rick Scott's voice
Rick Scott on his opposition to student debt relief
Recorded September 14, 2022

Scott is a graduate of the University of Missouri–Kansas City and the Dedman School of Law at Southern Methodist University. In 1987, after serving in the United States Navy and becoming a law firm partner, he co-founded Columbia Hospital Corporation. Columbia later merged with another corporation to form Columbia/HCA, which eventually became the nation's largest for-profit health care company.[6] Scott was pressured to resign as chief executive of Columbia/HCA in 1997. During his tenure as chief executive, the company defrauded Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal programs. The Department of Justice won 14 felony convictions against the company, which was fined $1.7 billion in what was at the time the largest healthcare fraud settlement in U.S. history.[7][8] Following his departure from Columbia/HCA, Scott became a venture capitalist and pursued other business interests. In 2009, he founded Conservatives for Patients' Rights.

Scott ran for governor of Florida in 2010. He defeated Bill McCollum in a vigorously contested Republican primary election, and then narrowly defeated Democratic nominee Alex Sink in the general election.[9] Scott was reelected in 2014, defeating former governor Charlie Crist. He was barred by term limits from running for reelection in 2018, and instead ran for the United States Senate.

Scott won the 2018 US Senate election, defeating Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson. The initial election results were so close that they triggered a mandatory recount. The recount showed that Scott had won by 10,033 votes; Nelson then conceded the race. Scott took office following the expiration of his term as governor of Florida on January 8, 2019. He is running for reelection in 2024.

Early life and education

Rick Scott was born Richard Lynn Myers[10] in Bloomington, Illinois, on December 1, 1952. Scott never met his biological father, Gordon William Myers (1926–1976),[10] who was described by Scott's mother, Esther J. Scott (née Fry; 1928–2012), as an abusive alcoholic.[11] Scott's parents divorced in his infancy.[11]

In 1954, Esther married Orba George Scott Jr. (1925–2006), a truck driver. Orba adopted Rick, who took his stepfather's surname and became known as Richard Lynn Scott.[12] Scott was raised in North Kansas City, Missouri, the second of five children. His family was lower-middle-class and struggled financially; Esther Scott worked as a clerk at J. C. Penney, among other jobs.[13][14]

Scott graduated from North Kansas City High School in 1970.[15] He attended community college and enlisted in the United States Navy in 1970.[16] Scott was in the Navy for 29 months[17] and served on the USS Glover (FF-1098) as a radarman.[18]

Scott attended college on the G.I. Bill,[18] and graduated from the University of Missouri–Kansas City with a Bachelor of Science in business administration.[19] He earned a juris doctor degree by working his way through Southern Methodist University.[18] He was licensed by the Texas Bar to practice law on November 6, 1978.[20]

Career

Scott made his first foray into business while working his way through college and law school, initially buying and reviving a failing doughnut shop (the Flavor Maid Do-Nut) by adding workplace delivery instead of relying on foot traffic. He later bought and revived another doughnut shop.[21] After graduating from law school, Scott worked as an attorney at the law firm of Johnson & Swanson in Dallas, Texas.[22]

Columbia Hospital Corporation

In 1988, Scott and Richard Rainwater, a financier from Fort Worth, each put up $125,000 in working capital in their new company, Columbia Hospital Corporation;[23] they borrowed the remaining money needed to purchase two struggling hospitals in El Paso for $60 million.[24] Then they acquired a neighboring hospital and shut it down. Within a year, the remaining two were doing much better.[17] By the end of 1989, Columbia Hospital Corporation owned four hospitals with a total of 833 beds.[24]

In 1992, Columbia made a stock purchase of Basic American Medical, which owned eight hospitals, primarily in southwestern Florida. In September 1993, Columbia did another stock purchase, worth $3.4 billion, of Galen Healthcare, which had been spun off by Humana Inc. several months earlier.[25] At the time, Galen had approximately 90 hospitals. After the purchase, Galen stockholders had 82% of the stock in the combined company, with Scott still running the company.[24]

Columbia/HCA

In April 1987, Scott made his first attempt to buy the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA). While still a partner at Johnson & Swanson, Scott formed the HCA Acquisition Company with two former executives of Republic Health Corporation, Charles Miller and Richard Ragsdale.[26] With financing from Citicorp conditional on acquisition of HCA,[27] the proposed holding company offered $3.85 billion for 80 million shares at $47 each, intending to assume an additional $1.2 billion in debt, for a total $5 billion deal. After HCA declined the offer, the bid was withdrawn.[28]

In 1994, Columbia Hospital Corporation merged with HCA, "forming the single largest for-profit health care company in the country." Scott became CEO of Columbia/HCA.[29] According to The New York Times, "[in] less than a decade, Mr. Scott had built a company he founded with two small hospitals in El Paso into the world's largest health care company – a $20 billion giant with about 350 hospitals, 550 home health care offices and scores of other medical businesses in 38 states."[30]

Fraud investigation and settlement

On March 19, 1997, investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Health and Human Services served search warrants at Columbia/HCA facilities in El Paso and on dozens of doctors with suspected ties to the company.[31] Eight days after the initial raid, Scott signed his last SEC report as a hospital executive. Four months later, the board of directors pressured him to resign as chairman and CEO.[32] He was succeeded by Thomas F. Frist Jr.[33] Scott was paid $9.88 million in a settlement, and left owning 10 million shares of stock then worth more than $350 million.[34][35][36] The directors had been warned in the company's annual public reports to stockholders that incentives Columbia/HCA offered doctors could run afoul of a federal anti-kickback law passed in order to limit or eliminate instances of conflicts of interest in Medicare and Medicaid.[33]

During Scott's 2000 deposition, he pleaded the Fifth Amendment 75 times.[37] In settlements reached in 2000 and 2002, Columbia/HCA pleaded guilty to 14 felonies and agreed to a $600+ million fine in what was at the time the largest health care fraud settlement in U.S. history. Columbia/HCA admitted systematically overcharging the government by claiming marketing costs as reimbursable, by striking illegal deals with home care agencies, and by filing false data about use of hospital space. It also admitted to fraudulently billing Medicare and other health programs by inflating the seriousness of diagnoses and to giving doctors partnerships in company hospitals as a kickback for the doctors referring patients to HCA. It filed false cost reports, fraudulently billing Medicare for home health care workers, and paid kickbacks in the sale of home health agencies and to doctors to refer patients. In addition, it gave doctors "loans" never intending to be repaid, free rent, free office furniture, and free drugs from hospital pharmacies.[38][7]

In late 2002, HCA agreed to pay the United States government $631 million, plus interest, and $17.5 million to state Medicaid agencies, in addition to $250 million paid up to that point to resolve outstanding Medicare expense claims.[39] In all, civil lawsuits cost HCA more than $2 billion to settle; at the time, this was the largest fraud settlement in U.S. history.[40][41]

Venture capitalist

After leaving Columbia/HCA in 1997, Scott launched Richard L. Scott Investments, based in Naples, Florida (originally in Stamford, Connecticut[42]), which has stakes in health care, manufacturing and technology companies. Between 1998 and 2001, he purchased 50% of CyberGuard Corporation for approximately $10 million. Among his investors was Metro Nashville finance director David Manning.[42]

In 2006, CyberGuard was sold to Secure Computing for more than $300 million. In February 2005, Scott purchased Continental Structural Plastics, Inc. (CSP) in Detroit, Michigan. In July 2006, CSP purchased Budd Plastics from ThyssenKrupp, making CSP the largest industrial composites molder in North America.[43]

In 2005–2006, Scott provided the initial round of funding of $3 million to Alijor.com (named for the first three letters of his two daughters' names), which offered hospitals, physicians, and other health care providers the opportunity to post information about their prices, hours, locations, insurance accepted, and personal backgrounds online.[44] Scott co-founded the company with his daughter Allison.[42]

In 2008, Alijor was sold to HealthGrades. In May 2008, Scott purchased Drives, one of the world's leading independent designers and manufacturers of heavy-duty drive chain-based products and assemblies for industrial and agricultural applications and precision-engineered augers for agricultural, material handling, construction and related applications. Scott reportedly has an interest in a chain of family fun centers/bowling alleys, S&S Family Entertainment, in Kentucky and Tennessee led by Larry Schmittou, a minor league baseball team owner.[45]

America's Health Network (AHN)

In July 1997, Columbia/HCA Healthcare purchased a controlling interest in America's Health Network (AHN), the first 24-hour health care cable channel. They[who?] pulled out of the deal on the day of the closing because Scott and Vanderwater were terminated, causing the immediate layoffs of more than 250 people in Orlando. Later that same year, Scott became majority owner of AHN.[46]

In 1998, Scott and Vandewater led a group of investors who gave AHN a major infusion of cash so that the company could continue to operate. By early 1999, the network was available in 9.5 million American homes.[47]

In mid-1999 AHN merged with Fit TV, a subsidiary of Fox; the combination was renamed The Health Network.[48] Later that year, in a deal between News Corp. and WebMD, the latter received half-ownership of The Health Network. WebMD planned to relaunch The Health Network as WebMD Television in the fall of 2000, with new programming, but that company announced cutbacks and restructuring in September 2000, and, in January 2001, News Corp. regained 100% ownership.[49] In September 2001, Fox Cable Networks Group sold The Health Network to its main rival, the Discovery Health Channel, for $155 million in cash plus a 10% equity stake in Discovery Health.[50]

Solantic

 
Scott in 2007

Solantic, based in Jacksonville, Florida, was co-founded in 2001 by Scott and Karen Bowling, a former television anchor Scott met after Columbia bought what is now Memorial Hospital in 1995.[13]

Solantic opened its first urgent care center in 2002. It provides urgent care services, immunizations, physicals, drug screening, and care for injured workers. The corporation attracts patients who do not have insurance, cannot get appointments with their primary care physicians, or do not have primary care physicians. Solantic is an alternative to the emergency department care that these types of patients often seek, or for not seeing a doctor at all. In 2006, Scott said that his plans for Solantic were to establish a national brand of medical clinics.[13]

In August 2007, the company received a $40 million investment from a private equity firm and said that it expected to open 35 clinics by the end of 2009, with annual revenues of $100 million once all these clinics were open, compared to $20 million at the time.[51] As of March 2009, Solantic had 24 centers, all in Florida.[52]

Solantic was the target of an employment discrimination suit that claimed that there had been a policy to not hire elderly or obese applicants, preferring "mainstream" candidates. It was settled for an undisclosed sum on May 23, 2007. Scott responded to Salon regarding the claims of discrimination pointing out that "currently 53 percent of Solantic's employees are white, 20 percent black and 17 percent Hispanic."[53]

Pharmaca

In 2003, Scott invested $5.5 million in Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacies,[54] which operates drugstores/pharmacies in the Western United States that offer vitamins, herbal medicine, skin products, homeopathic medicines, and prescriptions.

Other work

In the 1990s, Scott was a partner of George W. Bush as co-owner of the Texas Rangers.[55]

Early political career

Conservatives for Patients' Rights

Main article: Conservatives for Patients' Rights
 
Governor Scott speaking at the 2011 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida

In February 2009, Scott founded Conservatives for Patients' Rights (CPR), which he said was intended to put pressure on Democrats to enact health care legislation based on free-market principles.[56] As of March 2009, he had given about $5 million for a planned $20 million ad campaign by CPR.[57]

Governor of Florida

Elections

2010

Main article: 2010 Florida gubernatorial election

On April 9, 2010, Scott announced his candidacy for the 2010 Republican Party nomination for governor of Florida.[58] He ran against Democratic nominee Alex Sink.[59]

Susie Wiles, former communications chief to Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton, was Scott's campaign manager, and Tony Fabrizio was his chief pollster. It was reported on May 7 that Scott's campaign had already spent $4.7 million on television and radio ads.[60] His first video advertisement was released to YouTube on April 13.[61]

During the primary campaign, Scott's opponent, Bill McCollum, made an issue of Scott's role at Columbia/HCA. Scott countered that the FBI had never targeted him. Marc Caputo of the Miami Herald contended that a 1998 bill sponsored by McCollum would have made it more difficult to prosecute Medicare fraud cases, and was counter to his current views and allegations.[62] Scott won the August primary with approximately 46.4% percent of the vote to McCollum's 43.4% By the date of the Tampa debate between Scott and Sink (October 25, 2010), Scott had spent $60 million of his own money on the campaign compared to Sink's reported $28 million.[63] Scott campaigned as part of the Tea Party movement.[64]

The Fort Myers News Press quoted Scott as saying he spent roughly $78 million of his own money on the campaign, although other figures indicate he spent slightly over $75 million. He won the general election, defeating Sink by around 68,000 votes, or 1.29%.[65] He took office as the 45th governor of Florida on January 4, 2011.

2014

Main article: 2014 Florida gubernatorial election

In October 2011, Scott announced that he would run for reelection in 2014.[66] His political funding committee, Let's Get to Work, had raised $28 million for his campaign as of May 2014.[67][68]

As of early June 2014, Scott had spent almost $13 million since March on television advertisements attacking former governor Charlie Crist, who then appeared to be the likely Democratic nominee, and who was eventually nominated. The ads resulted in a tightening of the race, mainly due to a decline in Crist's favorability ratings, while Scott's favorability ratings did not increase.[69]

By late September 2014, Scott's television ad spending had exceeded $35 million[70][71] and in mid-October reached $56.5 million, compared to $26.5 million by Crist. On October 22 it was reported that Scott's total spending had exceeded $83 million and he announced that, having previously said he would not do so, he would invest his own money into the campaign, speculated to be as much as $22 million.[72]

Crist hoped to draw strong support from Florida's more than 1.6 million registered black voters, an effort that was challenging given his previous political career as a Republican. A September 2014 Quinnipiac University poll revealed his support among black voters was 72%, well below the 90% analysts believed he needed to defeat Scott.[73]

Scott and Crist met in an October 15 debate held by the Florida Press Association at Broward College.[74] Scott refused to take the stage for seven minutes because Crist had a small electric fan under his lectern. The incident was dubbed "fangate" by media sources such as Politico.[75] On November 4, 2014, Scott and Carlos Lopez-Cantera won the general election against Crist and Annette Taddeo-Goldstein by 64,000 votes. The Libertarian candidates, Adrian Wyllie and Greg Roe, received 223,356 votes.[76]

 
 
Scott's gubernatorial portraits during his first (left) and second (right) term

Tenure

 
Scott, Florida attorney general Pam Bondi, and other state officials
 
Scott with the Coast Guard in Miami
 
Scott speaking at Veterans Award Ceremony

During Hurricane Irma, Scott led Florida through the largest mass evacuation in U.S. history. He signed a repeal of Florida's 1985 growth management laws, reduced funding for water management districts, reduced oversight at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and supported increased funding for Everglades restoration. Scott supported permanent tax cuts and "focused on job numbers rather than on running state agencies or making sweeping policy changes".[77]

Scott had a 26 percent approval rating in December 2011, the lowest among U.S. governors,[78][79] but it steadily increased during the rest of his governorship.[80][81][82] It stood at 45 percent in August 2015,[83] and at 57 percent in April 2017.[84] In the aftermath of Hurricane Irma later that year, Scott's approval rating saw a high of 61 percent.[85] Shortly before he left office, his ratings had fallen to 47 percent approving and 41 percent disapproving.[86]

Death penalty

In 2013, Scott signed the Timely Justice Act (HB 7101)[87] to overhaul the processes for capital punishment in Florida.[88] The Supreme Court of the United States struck down part of this law in January 2016 in Hurst v. Florida, declaring, in an 8–1 decision, that a judge determining the aggravating facts to be used in considering a death sentence with only a non-binding recommendation from the jury based on a majority vote was insufficient and violated the Sixth Amendment guarantee of a jury trial.[89][90]

The Florida Legislature passed a new statute to comply with Hurst v. Florida, changing the sentencing method to require a 10-juror supermajority for a sentence of death with a life sentence as the alternative.[91] In October 2016 this new sentencing scheme was struck down by the Florida Supreme Court in a 5–2 ruling, which held that a death sentence must be issued by a unanimous jury.[92] The Florida Supreme Court ruled the law "cannot be applied to pending prosecutions" which means that until the Florida legislature acts, there is no procedure or law allowing a prosecutor to seek the death penalty; but it leaves open[clarification needed] the status of sentences passed under the twice-struck down provisions,[93] also left open by the January 2016 United States Supreme Court Hurst decision. The Court granted Hurst a new sentencing hearing after the same Supreme Court decision.[93]

During Scott's tenure, Florida executed more inmates (28) than had been executed under any other governor in the state's history.[77][94]

Donald Trump

In the 2016 Republican primaries, Scott endorsed Trump after Trump won the Florida primary.[95] Scott chaired a pro-Trump super PAC in the 2016 election.[95][96] Unlike many other establishment Republicans, Scott praised Trump as tough on terrorism and as an outsider during the 2016 Republican convention.[95]

When Trump "sparred with the Muslim father of a slain U.S. soldier", Scott said "I'm never going to agree with every candidate on what they're going to say".[95] When the Donald Trump Access Hollywood tape was publicized, in which Trump spoke of grabbing women "by the pussy", Scott rebuked Trump, saying, "I'm not following politics closely right now, but this is terrible. I don't agree with anyone talking like this about anyone, ever".[97]

Drug testing for welfare recipients

In June 2011, Scott signed a bill requiring those seeking welfare under the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to submit to drug screenings. Applicants who fail a drug test may name another person to receive benefits for their children.[98]

In an interview with CNN host Don Lemon, Scott said, "Studies show that people that are on welfare are higher users of drugs than people not on welfare" and "the bottom line is, if they're not using drugs, it's not an issue". PolitiFact said this comment was "half true". Government researchers in 1999–2000 reported "that 9.6 percent of people in families receiving some type of government assistance reported recent drug use, compared to 6.8 percent among people in families receiving no government assistance at all."[99]

Preliminary figures from Florida's program showed that 2.5% of applicants tested positive for drugs, with 2% declining to take the test, while the Justice Department estimated that around 6% of Americans use drugs overall.[100] The law was declared unconstitutional, with the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit upholding that ruling in December 2014.[101] The Scott administration declined to appeal the decision to the US Supreme Court.

Economy

In Scott's 2010 gubernatorial campaign, he promised to "run the state like you run a business".[102] In his gubernatorial platform, he pledged to create 700,000 jobs in the state; PolitiFact ruled in 2018 that Scott's job creation pledge was a "Promise Kept".[103]

Under Scott, Florida's job creation far outpaced the rest of the nation, while wages were below-average and poverty rates were above-average. During his tenure as governor, Florida employers created nearly 1.5 million jobs, and the state's employment grew 20.3%, compared to 12.5% growth for the U.S. as a whole. Florida's household income is lower than the national average, with a widening gap. At 15.8%, the state's poverty rate is slightly above the national rate of 14.7%.[104]

Education

In his 2010 gubernatorial campaign, Scott vowed to expand school choice. PolitiFact rated this a "Promise Kept" due to Scott's push to expand school choice as governor. School choice legislation signed by Scott includes the creation of the Hope Scholarship Program, which subsidizes the cost of private school or allows a transfer to another public school for students who were bullied.[105]

In December 2012, Scott announced a plan to encourage students to pursue majors in engineering and science by reducing tuition for some majors.[106]

In 2016, Scott signed a bill allowing parents to pick any public school in the state for their children, regardless of traditional attendance lines or county boundaries.[107]

In 2017, Scott signed a $419 million public school bill that included charter school expansion. The bill was supported by House Republicans, school choice proponents, and conservative political groups and it was opposed by superintendents, school boards, parent groups, and teachers unions.[108][109]

During the summer of 2017, Scott signed a bill (HB 989 and SB 1210) that would allow any Florida resident to "challenge the use or adoption of instructional materials" in public schools.[110] Proponents of the bill argued that it would allow parents to be more proactive in their child's education. Opponents of the bill argued that it would allow more censorship, especially for scientific topics like global warming and evolution.[111]

Environment

Scott rejects the scientific consensus on climate change, saying "I'm not a scientist".[112][113] The quote or paraphrases thereof became talking points for some Republican political candidates in the 2014 election campaigns.[114][115]

When questioned by the press on March 9, 2015, in Hialeah, Florida, Scott did not say whether he believes global warming is a problem or whether Florida's Department of Environmental Protection has made or is making preparations for its potential consequences.[116][117]

In March 2015, accusations were made that Scott's administration had instructed Department of Environmental Protection officials to avoid the terms "climate change" or "global warming" in official communications. Scott denied that his administration had banned the terms.[118][119][120][121]

Scott cut $700 million from Florida's water management districts over his tenure as governor.[122] The cuts stirred controversy in 2018 when Florida faced a water contamination crisis.[122][123]

Financial disclosures

In 2017, Donald Hinkle, a Democratic activist and lawyer, filed a lawsuit claiming that Scott had not disclosed sufficient information about his wealth and holdings and may have underestimated his net worth. Scott appealed to a three-judge panel of the First Circuit Court of Appeals. The appeals court granted a writ of prohibition barring the circuit judge from taking any further action in the case. The five-page ruling agreed with Scott that only the Commission on Ethics "has constitutional authority to investigate Mr. Hinkle's complaint."[124][125]

Gun laws

As of February 2018, Scott had an A+ rating from the NRA Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF), indicating a record of supporting gun rights.[126] The NRA-PVF endorsed Scott in 2010 and 2014, stating in 2014 that he had "signed more pro-gun bills into law–in one term–than any other governor in Florida history".[127][128]

In 2011, Scott signed the Firearm Owners' Privacy Act (informally called "Docs vs. Glocks"), which made it illegal for doctors and mental health professionals to ask patients about their gun ownership unless they believed "that this information is relevant to the patient's medical care or safety, or the safety of others."[129] Provisions of the law, including the part forbidding doctors from asking about a patient's gun ownership, were struck down as unconstitutional in 2017 by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.[129]

On June 9, 2017, Scott signed an expanded version of Florida's stand-your-ground law into law.[130]

In February 2018, after the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, Scott stated his support for raising the minimum age to purchase a firearm from 18 to 21; at the time of the shooting, 21 was the minimum age to buy a handgun, but rifles could be purchased at age 18. He also announced his support of a ban on bump stocks. Scott said, "I want to make it virtually impossible for anyone who has mental issues to use a gun", requesting $500 million in funds for mental health and school safety programs.[131] In March 2018, the Florida Legislature passed the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, which incorporated many of the measures Scott supported. It raised the minimum age for buying firearms to 21, established waiting periods and background checks, provided a program for the arming of some teachers and the hiring of school police, banned bump stocks, and barred potentially violent or mentally unhealthy people arrested under certain laws from possessing guns. In all, it allocated around $400 million.[132] Scott signed the bill into law on March 9.[133] That same day, the National Rifle Association filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the law's provision banning gun sales to people under 21. NRA spokesperson Marion Hammer said, "We filed a lawsuit against the state for violating the constitutional rights of 18- to 21-year-olds."[134]

Health care

Scott has been a harsh critic of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare),[135] but in his 2018 Senate campaign stopped harshly criticizing the bill.[136] In 2017, he said that people with preexisting conditions should be protected.[137] In June 2018, when the Trump administration sought to remove provisions of Obamacare protecting people with preexisting conditions, Scott declined to criticize the administration,[136][137][138] saying he did not know enough about it to comment.[137]

Scott has taken a number of positions on Medicaid expansion. For much of his first term as governor, he opposed Medicaid expansion in Florida, saying it was too costly. In 2013, he came out in support of Medicaid expansion, and reiterated his support in 2014 when he was up for reelection.[138] After being reelected, Scott reversed his position and adamantly fought against efforts by the Florida Senate to pass Medicaid expansion in 2015.[139] Scott rejected the Medicaid expansion because of his renewed fiscal concerns, saying it is "hard to understand how the state could take on even more federal programs."[139]

Scott has been accused of having fueled an HIV epidemic while governor, by ensuring that Florida returned $54 million in unspent federal HIV-prevention grants and blocking $16 million in CDC grants to Miami-Dade and Broward counties.[140] The effect of this rejection of federal funds combined with Scott's stance on Medicaid expansion has been described as "helping explain why the state’s HIV epidemic became almost peerlessly severe during Scott’s time in office", with the state accounting for 13% of the country's HIV diagnoses in 2017.[140] Scott has opposed most federal grants due to his fiscal conservatism.[140]

Hurricane Irma

Scott's handling of Hurricane Irma boosted his profile in advance of his U.S. Senate campaign, with The Hill writing that his "aggressive approach to Irma, which saw him order an extensive evacuation ahead of the storm and coordinate disaster relief efforts as the storm came ashore, has sent his political stock even higher".[141]

An investigation by WFOR-TV found that after Hurricane Irma, Scott ignored existing debris removal contracts and instead issued emergency contracts for hurricane clean-up efforts.[142] Florida state officials sent an email to several companies on September 11 inviting them to hand in bids for debris clean-up by the next day.[142] State officials believed new contracts were needed to speed up the removal process given the severity of Hurricane Irma.[142] On September 13, state officials decided to use the services of MCM and Community Asphalt, firms owned by contributors to the Republican Party and Scott's campaigns. According to the television station, the emergency contracts cost $28 to $30 million more than the existing contracts.[142]

Immigration and refugees

In 2010, Scott ran for governor as an immigration hard-liner.[143][64] At the time, he favored similar laws as Arizona's controversial Arizona SB 1070 which targeted illegal immigrants, and criticized Florida lawmakers for not being tougher on illegal immigrants.[144][143] Scott called for police to check individuals' immigration status.[144] By 2014, PolitiFact wrote that Scott had "abandoned promises to get tough on illegal immigration."[145] Over time, he moderated his views on immigration.[64]

In 2011, Scott opposed giving in-state tuition for illegal immigrants, but reversed course in 2014 and signed a bill giving DREAMers in-state tuition in an effort to place limits on how much state institutions can raise tuition each year.[146][147] In 2013, Scott vetoed legislation that would have given DACA-eligible immigrants the ability to obtain temporary driving licenses.[148][147] By 2018, he spoke in favor of giving DREAMers a path to citizenship.[143]

In June 2018, Scott opposed the Trump administration family separation policy, which involved separating children from their parents, relatives, or other adults who accompanied them in crossing the border, sending the parents to federal jails and placing children and infants under the supervision of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In a letter to United States secretary of health and human services Alex Azar, Scott wrote: "I have been very clear that I absolutely do not agree with the practice of separating children from their families. This practice needs to stop now."[149][150]

Scott's administration awarded Comprehensive Health Services, Inc. (CHSi) a tax incentive package of $600,000 to expand in Cape Canaveral, Florida. CHSi runs the Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children which detains minor migrants, including those separated from families at the border.[151]

Medical marijuana

After voters approved a constitutional amendment to legalize medical marijuana, Scott signed a bill passed by the legislature which allowed the use of medical marijuana but not smokeable medical marijuana.[152] A judge ruled the ban on smokeable medical marijuana unconstitutional.[153] Scott appealed the decision.[154][155]

Predictive policing

On September 3, 2020, the Tampa Bay Times released an investigative report into Scott-appointed Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco's "predictive policing" program, which relies on unproven algorithms.[156] The program is designed to use counter-terrorism and other military "intelligence" tactics to prevent property damage.[156] Nocco was a Republican insider with limited law enforcement experience at the time he was appointed by Scott, in 2011.[156]

Redistricting amendments

In the 2010 elections, Florida voters passed constitutional amendments banning gerrymandering of congressional and legislative districts.[157] In February 2011, Scott withdrew a request to the United States Department of Justice to approve these amendments, which, according to The Miami Herald, might delay the implementation of the redistricting plan because the Voting Rights Act requires preclearance of state laws likely to affect minority representation. Scott said he wanted to make sure the redistricting was carried out properly.[158]

Several advocacy groups[which?] sued Scott in federal court to compel him to resubmit the acts to the Justice Department.[clarification needed][159]

Transportation

On February 16, 2011, Scott rejected $2.3 billion in federal funding to develop high-speed rail between Tampa and Orlando. He cited California's experience with high-speed rail, namely much lower than expected ridership and cost overruns that doubled the final price.[160] In response, a veto-proof majority in the Florida Senate approved a letter rebuking Scott and asking the Department of Transportation to continue funding. On March 1, 2011, two Florida state senators filed a petition with the Florida Supreme Court to compel Scott to accept the rail funds on the grounds that he lacked constitutional authority to reject funds that had been approved by a prior legislature.[161] On March 4, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that Scott's rejection of the rail funds did not violate the Constitution of Florida.[162]

In March 2011, Scott moved to have the Florida Department of Transportation amend its work plan to include $77 million for dredging PortMiami to a depth of 50 feet. Once the port is dredged, Panamax-sized vessels coming through the expanded Panama Canal could load and unload cargo there.[163]

In 2018, Scott reversed course and supported a high-speed rail project between Tampa and Orlando when the company All Aboard Florida sought to get taxpayer-backed funding from state and federal governments.[164] He argued that new budget surpluses following the recession could help fund the project.[164] Scott and his wife had invested at least $3 million in the parent company of All Aboard Florida, which had made donations to Scott's political campaigns.[164]

Voting rights

Scott frequently sought to implement voter IDs as governor, with numerous courts ruling against him in voting rights cases.[165][166][167] He signed into law bills that created barriers to registering new voters, limited early voting, ended early voting on the Sunday before Election Day (known as "souls to the polls" in African-American churches), and restricted the ability of ex-felons to restore their voting rights. In 2012, Scott attempted to purge non-citizens from voter rolls just before the election; a court stopped him from doing so, and it was revealed that legitimate voters were on the voter rolls. The Tampa Bay Times noted that under Scott's tenure, Florida had the longest voting lines of any state in the 2012 election.[165] After harsh criticism, he expanded early voting hours, and allowed early voting on the Sunday before Election Day.[165]

In 2016, Scott refused to extend registration deadlines after ordering evacuations due to Hurricane Matthew; courts ultimately extended the deadline. He signed legislation into law that rejected mail ballots where signatures on the ballot envelope did not match signatures in files; in 2016 a court struck down the law.[165] In 2014, Scott blocked a request by the city of Gainesville to use a facility at the University of Florida as a site for early voting.[165] In July 2018, a judge ruled against Scott's prohibition of early voting on campus, saying the ban showed a "stark pattern of discrimination."[166][167] In 2013, Scott ordered Pinellas County to close down sites where voters could submit mail ballots. In 2012, a court ruled that Scott could not place heavy fines on groups that registered voters but failed to submit the registrations within 48 hours.[165]

Scott rolled back automatic restoration of rights for nonviolent crimes, giving former felons a five- to six-year waiting period before they can apply for a restoration of voting rights.[168] Of the approximately 30,000 applications from former felons to have their voting rights restored during his tenure, Scott approved approximately 3,000.[168] A 2018 investigation by the Palm Beach Post found that during his governorship, Scott restored the voting rights of three times as many white men as black men, and that blacks accounted only for 27% of those granted voting rights despite blacks being 43% of those released from state prisons in the past 20 years.[169] The percentage of blacks among those whose voting rights were restored was the lowest in more than 50 years, and Scott restored a higher share of Republican voting rights than Democratic voting rights than in almost 50 years.[169] A clemency board set up by Scott held hearings on applications, but there were no standards on how to judge the worthiness of individual applications. In March 2017, seven former felons filed a class action lawsuit arguing that the clemency board's decisions were inconsistent, vague and political.[168]

In February 2018, a U.S. District Court described Scott's process as arbitrary and unconstitutional, and ruled that he had to create a new process to restore felons' voting rights.[165][168] The ruling said that Scott and his clemency board had "unfettered discretion" to deny voting rights "for any reason," and that "to vote again, disenfranchised citizens must kowtow before a panel of high-level government officials over which Florida's governor has absolute veto authority. No standards guide the panel. Its members alone must be satisfied that these citizens deserve restoration."[168] The Brennan Center for Justice described the clemency rules issued by Scott in 2011 as among the most restrictive in the country.[170]

U.S. Senate

Elections

2018

Main article: 2018 United States Senate election in Florida

After months of speculation about a potential run, Scott officially announced on April 9, 2018, that he would challenge incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Bill Nelson in the 2018 election.[171][172]

Scott defeated Rocky De La Fuente in the Republican primary.[173][174] In the general election, Scott's involvement in a large Medicare fraud case stirred controversy.[8][175] Scott responded with ads accusing Nelson of having cut Medicare benefits and stolen from Medicare; fact-checkers found that both of Scott's assertions were false.[176][175] During the campaign, Scott called Nelson a "socialist", an assertion PolitiFact described as "pants-on-fire" false.[177] Scott sought to avoid mentioning Trump and at times criticized or distanced himself from actions of the Trump administration, whereas in the past he had used his friendship with Trump to boost his profile and had been an early and vocal supporter of Trump in 2016.[95] Trump endorsed Scott for Senate.[96]

The initial election results showed Scott leading Nelson by 12,562 votes, or 0.15% of the vote. Under Florida law, a manual recount is triggered if election results show a margin of less than 0.5% of the vote.[178] Both candidates filed lawsuits in connection with the recount. After the recount, Florida elections officials announced on November 18, 2018, that Scott had prevailed. Scott received 50.05% of the vote to Nelson's 49.93%; the margin of victory was 10,033 votes out of 8.19 million votes cast. Nelson then conceded.[179] It was the most expensive Senate race in the nation in 2018.[180] After the race, Scott's Super PAC, New Republican PAC, received criticism from across the political spectrum for its aggressive practices and was the subject of several FEC complaints for multiple violations of federal election law;[181][182][183] the Super PAC's finances are chaired by hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin, who personally donated at least $10 million to the PAC.[184][185][186]

Tenure

The Senate term for the 116th Congress began on January 3, 2019, but Scott's term as governor ended on January 8. On December 4, 2018, Scott's office announced that he would finish his term as governor and not resign early.[5] Scott attended the ceremonial swearing-in of his successor as governor, Ron DeSantis, on the morning of January 8, 2019, in front of Florida's historic Old Capitol.[187] Scott left the ceremony early to fly to Washington, D.C., and was sworn in to the Senate by Vice President Mike Pence later that afternoon.[188][5][189]

Trump administration

 
Scott, President Donald Trump, and Senator Marco Rubio aboard Air Force One in 2019.

In January 2019, Scott encouraged Trump to declare a national emergency to build a border wall if Congress would not give him the funds to do so.[190] In February 2019, when Trump declared a national emergency, Scott applauded the decision.[191]

In April 2019, amid calls for an American military intervention in Venezuela, Scott said that the Maduro regime was perpetrating a "genocide" and that the U.S. was "not aggressive enough" about the situation. Fact-checkers and experts described Scott's assertion of a genocide as false and misguided.[192][193] Scott called on the U.S. to position its military assets to be prepared to respond to events in Venezuela.[194]

In May 2020, Scott voted for an amendment co-sponsored by Senators Steve Daines and Ron Wyden that would have required federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies to obtain federal court warrants when collecting web search engine data from American citizens, nationals, or residents under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).[195][196]

After Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on September 18, 2020, Scott sided with Senator Mitch McConnell and called on her replacement to be voted on before that year's presidential election.[197]

After Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election while making false claims of fraud, Scott voted to object to seating the electors from Pennsylvania but voted against the other objection raised for seating the electors from Arizona. Both objections were rejected by the Senate, 92–7 and 93–6, respectively.[198][199][200]

Biden administration

In April 2021, Scott ran unopposed for the chairmanship of the National Republican Senatorial Committee and was formally selected on November 10, 2020, succeeding Senator Todd Young.[201][202]

In March 2021, Scott voted against the American Rescue Plan Act; after it passed, he called upon Florida and other states to reject federal assistance from the package.[203]

In May 2021, Scott voted against creating an independent commission to investigate the 2021 United States Capitol attack.[204]

On March 10, 2022, Scott was one of 31 Republicans to vote against a $1.5 trillion spending bill that included $13.6 billion in military assistance for Ukraine's defense, arguing that it was filled with lawmakers' "pet" projects. On March 17, he was one of more than two dozen Senate Republicans who demanded that President Biden send Ukraine more support.[205]

Scott supported the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022, saying that Roe v. Wade was "flawed legal reasoning" and that the Supreme Court had defended "human dignity" and federalism.[206]

In August 2022, Scott published an open letter encouraging job seekers not to apply for newly funded positions at the IRS, vowing that Republicans, if they took control of Congress in January 2023, would quickly "defund" those jobs.[207] The letter to job seekers included the statement, "The IRS is making it very clear that you not only need to be ready to audit and investigate your fellow hardworking Americans, your neighbors and friends, you need to be ready and, to use the IRS’s words, willing, to kill them."[208][209]

On November 14, 2022, Scott announced he would attempt to challenge incumbent Mitch McConnell for the position of Senate Minority Leader in the 118th United States Congress, the first challenge McConnell had faced for the position since winning it in 2006.[210] Scott said, "the status quo is broken and big change is needed" and that Senate Republican leadership needed "to listen to [Republican voters'] calls for action and start governing in Washington like we campaign back at home", in the wake of the party's failure to gain Senate seats in that year's elections.[211] Scott received 10 votes to McConnell's 37, with one senator voting "present".[212] The vote was held by secret ballot; senators who publicly confirmed voting for Scott included Mike Braun, Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, Ron Johnson, and Lindsey Graham.[213]

Scott was among the 31 Senate Republicans who voted against final passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023.[214]

Notable Senate bills that Scott has sponsored or co-sponsored include the Sunshine Protection Act, which makes daylight saving time in the United States permanent; the PROTECT Kids Act, which cuts federal funding to schools that allow students to change their preferred pronouns and keep their sexual orientation from their parents; the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022; and the END FENTANYL Act. Scott also expressed support for "automatic" capital punishment of school shooters in the wake of the Covenant School shooting in Nashville.[215][216][217][218][219]

Plan to Rescue America

On February 22, 2022, Scott released his controversial 11-Point Plan to Rescue America in response to Democratic criticism that Republicans were unwilling to provide any kind of agenda should they win the House and/or Senate that year.[220][221] Particularly singled out were a proposal that would force all Americans to pay at least some income tax "to have skin in the game" and one that would make all federal legislation sunset within five years. While the latter proposal did not mention any specific legislation, Social Security and Medicare were singled out elsewhere as programs that could be affected. Other proposals in the plan included closing the United States Department of Education, punishing universities that practice affirmative action, stripping all funding from sanctuary cities, completing the Trump wall, reducing the size of the federal government and its workforce, mandatory voter ID, increasing police funding and law and order policies, mandating the Pledge of Allegiance in schools, allowing legal action against social media platforms for deplatforming, banning transgender women from participating in women's sports, banning the supposed teaching of critical race theory, expanding religious freedom, and various attacks on "wokeness" and diversity training.[222]

Democrats, including President Biden, strongly attacked the plan.[223][224][225] The Republican response was mixed.[226][227] Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell criticized the provisions on income tax and sunsetting federal legislation, and Senator John Cornyn said the plan "is not an approach embraced by the entire Republican conference" and not something that should be focused on until after the election.[228] Senator Ron Johnson said he supported Scott for releasing his platform and agreed with most of it.[229] Senators Mike Braun and Tommy Tuberville also praised the platform.[230]

On June 8, 2022, Scott released a revision of the plan that replaced the income tax proposal with a proposal not to provide government assistance to "able-bodied Americans under 60 [without] young children or incapacitated dependents" who are not working. He also added a 12th point containing various tax proposals and clarifying that the plan "cuts taxes",[231] in response to Biden's criticisms of his income tax proposal.[232]

Committee assignments

 
Scott greeting General James H. Dickinson at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, March 2023

Scott has served or is serving on the following committees:[233]

Current

Previous

Caucus

Net worth and investments

Scott's net worth was estimated at US$219 million in 2010, $84 million in 2012, and $133 million in 2013.[234][235] On July 1, 2015, it was reported that Scott's net worth had grown to $147 million,[236] $149 million on December 31, 2016,[237] and $232 million on December 31, 2017.[238] For August 2018, his net worth was estimated at $255 million.[239] Based on financial disclosure reports covering 2020, Business Insider reports that Scott has a minimum net worth of just over $200 million, making him the wealthiest member of Congress.[240]

Creation of "blind trust"

Early in his gubernatorial tenure, Scott said he created a blind trust for his holdings to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. In October 2018, The New York Times reported that the trust in question was blind in name only, and that there were various ways in which Scott could know what his precise holdings were. The holdings in question included investments in companies and funds that Scott could have had an impact on through his administration's policies.[241] The trust in question was managed by one of Scott's former personal assistants from before he became governor.[242]

In February 2019, Scott announced that he would no longer keep his holdings in a trust.[243]

Controversial investments

In 2017, Scott and his wife held stocks in firms that did business with the Maduro government in Venezuela and a shipping firm with close ties to Russia.[244][245][246] Scott had been a harsh critic of the Maduro regime and chastised companies that invested in Venezuela, saying, "Any organization that does business with the Maduro regime cannot do business with the state of Florida."[246] By 2018, Scott and his wife no longer held stocks in the firms with links to Russia or Venezuela.[244]

In a July 2018 financial disclosure statement, Scott and his wife reported earnings of at least $2.9 million in hedge funds registered in the Cayman Islands, a well-known tax haven. The financial statement said that the assets were held in a blind trust and a 2018 campaign spokesperson said Scott did not have a role in selecting particular investments.[244]

Scott and his wife invested at least $3 million in the parent company of All Aboard Florida, a rail investment company that proposed to build high-speed rail between Orlando and Tampa.[164][247] In 2018, Scott supported the efforts of the company to build the rail and get taxpayer-financing.[164] He had previously, early in his tenure as governor, rejected $2.3 billion in federal funding to develop high-speed rail between Tampa and Orlando.[164] Scott stated the original project was fiscally irresponsible given the recession, and he supported a public-private partnership approach when the state's finances were in order.[164]

Scott was an investor in the firm Conduent Inc., which was awarded a $287 million Florida contract in 2015 to manage SunPass, the toll program in the state of Florida. Due to glitches in SunPass, motorists were charged bank fees and overdraft charges, and the Florida Department of Transportation was criticized for failing to take action. Scott, a Conduent investor, defended the department's handling of the SunPass controversy.[242]

Personal life

 
Scott's wife, Ann Holland

On April 20, 1972, Scott, then aged 19, married his high school sweetheart, Frances Annette Holland (born May 11, 1952), who was also 19 years old. The couple has two daughters and six grandsons.[13] They live in Naples, Florida, and are founding members of Naples Community Church.[248]

Swatting

Scott was swatted in December as part of the 2023 swatting of American politicians.[249]

Electoral history

2010 Florida gubernatorial election (Republican primary)[250]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Rick Scott 595,474 46.4%
Republican Bill McCollum 557,427 43.4%
Republican Mike McCalister 130,056 10.1%
Total votes 1,282,957 100.0%
2010 Florida gubernatorial election[251]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Republican Rick Scott / Jennifer Carroll 2,619,335 48.87% −3.31%
Democratic Alex Sink / Rod Smith 2,557,785 47.72% +2.62%
Independence Peter Allen 123,831 2.31% N/A
Independent C. C. Reed 18,842 0.35% N/A
Independent Michael E. Arth [de; es; fr; ja; zh] 18,644 0.35% N/A
Independent Daniel Imperato 13,690 0.26% N/A
Independent Farid Khavari 7,487 0.14% N/A
Write-in 121 0.00% N/A
Plurality 61,550 1.15% −5.92%
Total votes 5,359,735 100.0% N/A
Republican gain from Independent
2014 Florida gubernatorial election (Republican primary)[252]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Rick Scott (Incumbent) 831,887 87.65%
Republican Elizabeth Cuevas-Neunder 100,496 10.59%
Republican Yinka Adeshina 16,761 1.77%
Total votes 949,144 100.0%
2014 Florida gubernatorial election[76]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Republican Rick Scott / Carlos López-Cantera (incumbent) 2,865,343 48.14% −0.73%
Democratic Charlie Crist / Annette Taddeo 2,801,198 47.07% −0.65%
Libertarian Adrian Wyllie / Greg Roe 223,356 3.75% N/A
Independent Glenn Burkett / Jose Augusto Matos 41,341 0.70% N/A
Independent Farid Khavari / Lateresa A. Jones 20,186 0.34% +0.20%
Write-in 137 0.00% 0.00%
Total votes 5,951,571 100.0% N/A
Republican hold
2018 United States Senate election in Florida (Republican primary)[253]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Rick Scott 1,456,187 88.61%
Republican Rocky De La Fuente 187,209 11.39%
Total votes 1,643,396 100.0%
2018 United States Senate election in Florida[254]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Republican Rick Scott 4,099,505 50.06% +7.82%
Democratic Bill Nelson (incumbent) 4,089,472 49.93% −5.30%
Write-in 607 <0.01% N/A
Total votes 8,190,005 100.0% N/A
Republican gain from Democratic

Awards and honors

Notes

  1. ^ Because Ron DeSantis and Jeannette Núñez took their oaths of office ahead of time, they became governor and lieutenant governor at midnight on January 8, rather than waiting for the inaugural ceremony. Thus, Scott's and Lopez-Cantera's terms ended at the end of January 7.[1]

References

  1. ^ "DeSantis already governor when ceremony begins". Tampa Bay Times. January 5, 2019. Retrieved January 9, 2019.
  2. ^ "Summary of Information on Rick Scott". Thepoliticalguide.com. Retrieved May 30, 2011.
  3. ^ . Blogs.orlandosentinel.com. Archived from the original on November 4, 2011. Retrieved May 30, 2011.
  4. ^ "Rick Scott sworn in as Florida's newest U.S. senator". WJXT. January 8, 2019.
  5. ^ a b c Greenwood, Max (December 4, 2018). "Rick Scott delays Senate swearing-in ceremony". The Hill. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
  6. ^ "Hospital Corporation of America: Learning from Past Mistakes?" (PDF). Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative, University of New Mexico. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
  7. ^ a b Sherman, Amy (March 3, 2014). "Rick Scott 'oversaw the largest Medicare fraud' in U.S. history, Florida Democratic Party says". Politifact. Retrieved April 19, 2018.
  8. ^ a b Glorioso, Alexandra; Caputo, Marc (August 30, 2018). "Democrats: Medicare fraud is 'fungus' Scott will never get rid of". Politico. Retrieved October 26, 2018.
  9. ^ Smith, Ben (April 13, 2010). "Health Care Figure Running for Florida Governor". Politico. Retrieved February 24, 2016.
  10. ^ a b Smolenyak, Megan (September 17, 2018). "One Less Secret for Rick Scott". Retrieved November 8, 2018.
  11. ^ a b "RICK SCOTT – Fort Myers Florida Weekly". July 9, 2014. Retrieved November 8, 2018.
  12. ^ "Rick Scott the TV image well known, Rick Scott the man is not" April 30, 2013, at the Wayback Machine; accessed March 8, 2014.
  13. ^ a b c d M.C. Moewe (April 17, 2006). "Ex-Columbia chief helps grow Solantic". Jacksonville Business Journal. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  14. ^ Obituary for Esther Scott; accessed March 8, 2014.
  15. ^ Montgomery, Ben. . Tampa Bay Times. Archived from the original on June 7, 2013. Retrieved November 12, 2012.
  16. ^ Chrystal Hayes (October 13, 2018). "Florida Governor Rick Scott's Navy Hat Under Attack". USA Today.
  17. ^ a b c "Time 25". Time. June 17, 1996. Retrieved April 5, 2009.[dead link]
  18. ^ a b c "U.S. Senator Rick Scott was sworn in to the Senate in January 2019". senate.gov.
  19. ^ "Rick Scott's Biography". vote smart.
  20. ^ Profile, State Bar of Texas website; accessed June 7, 2014.
  21. ^ Bousquet, Steve. . Tampa Bay Times. Archived from the original on February 15, 2017. Retrieved February 19, 2018.
  22. ^ Leary, Alex. "Rick Scott raising money in Texas". tampabay.com. Retrieved November 8, 2018.
  23. ^ Milt Freudenheim (October 4, 1993). "Largest Publicly Held Hospital Chain Is Planned". The New York Times.
  24. ^ a b c Floyd Norris (October 6, 1994). "Efficiencies of scale are taken to the nth degree at Columbia". The New York Times. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  25. ^ Kathryn Jones (November 21, 1993). "A Hospital Giant Comes to Town, Bringing Change". The New York Times.
  26. ^ "Hospital Corp. Bid Is Dropped". The New York Times. April 22, 1987.
  27. ^ Milt Freudenheim (October 5, 1993). "The Hospital World's Hard-Driving Money Man". The New York Times.
  28. ^ "HCA Board Takes No Action on $3.85 Billion Takeover Bid". Associated Press. April 17, 1987.
  29. ^ Kelman, Brett (August 16, 2018). "HCA: From single hospital to health care behemoth". Tennessean.com. Retrieved October 26, 2018.
  30. ^ Eichenwald, Kurt (July 26, 1997). "2 Leaders Are Out at Health Giant as Inquiry Goes On". The New York Times. Retrieved October 26, 2018.
  31. ^ Kurt Eichenwald (March 21, 1997). "U.S. Expands Search of Columbia/HCA in Texas". The New York Times. Retrieved March 14, 2019.
  32. ^ Eichenwald, Kurt (July 26, 1997). "2 Leaders are out at health giant as inquiry goes on". The New York Times. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  33. ^ a b . TampaBay. Archived from the original on May 2, 2013. Retrieved December 23, 2013.
  34. ^ Korten, Tristram (September 30, 2009). . Salon. Archived from the original on May 11, 2010. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  35. ^ "Hospital Firm Ousts Its Founder; Columbia/Hca Tries To Stop Slide". Thefreelibrary.com. July 26, 1997. Retrieved May 30, 2011.
  36. ^ Moewe, M.C. (April 17, 2006). "Ex-Columbia chief helps grow Solantic".
  37. ^ Amy Sherman (June 17, 2014). "Rick Scott took the 5th Amendment 75 times, Democratic party ad says". Politifact.com. Retrieved November 19, 2018.
  38. ^ Ackman, Dan. "Disaster Of The Day: HCA". Forbes. Retrieved October 26, 2018.
  39. ^ Julie Appleby (December 18, 2002). "HCA to settle more allegations for $631M". USA Today.
  40. ^ "Accomplishments of the Department of Justice 2001–09" (PDF). Retrieved May 30, 2011.
  41. ^ Sherman, Amy. "Rick Scott 'oversaw the largest Medicare fraud in the nation's history', Florida Democratic Party says". Miami Herald. Retrieved November 6, 2014.
  42. ^ a b c Drew Ruble, "Great Scott" August 9, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, businesstn.com, July 2006; retrieved June 23, 2009.
  43. ^ LLC, Richard L. Scott Investments. "Richard L. Scott Investments Completes Acquisition of ThyssenKrupp Budd Company's Plastics Division with Portfolio Company Continental Structural Plastics". prnewswire.com. Retrieved October 10, 2016.
  44. ^ Lisa Sibley (July 28, 2008). "Alijor's online directory of providers growing". San Jose Business Journal. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  45. ^ "25 Emerging Companies", NashvillePost.com, December 1, 2002; retrieved June 23, 2009.
  46. ^ "Former Columbia/HCA official gains $9.9 million in severances". Oklahoma City Journal Record. November 14, 1997. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  47. ^ Lisa Napoli (February 22, 1999). "Where Dr. Spock Meets 'E.R.' on Line". The New York Times. Retrieved June 7, 2014.
  48. ^ Jill Krueger (June 4, 1999). "AHN getting 'fit' with Fox TV; Cable start-up gets backing, distribution muscle with network merger". Orlando Business Journal.
  49. ^ Linda Moss (January 8, 2001). "News Corp. Gets All of Health Network". Multichannel News. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  50. ^ "Discovery snaps up rival health network". Media Life Magazine. September 4, 2001.
  51. ^ Urvaksh Karkaria (August 15, 2007). . Jacksonville Times-Union. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  52. ^ Phil Galewitz (April 1, 2009). "Bethesda hospital, Solantic to open urgent care center". Palm Beach Post. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  53. ^ Tristram Korten (October 10, 2009). "A healthcare reform foe's alleged history of discrimination". Salon.com. Retrieved June 7, 2014.
  54. ^ "Pharmaca Completes $5.5 Million Equity Financing With Richard L. Scott to Open New Pharmaca Locations". New Hope Network. September 29, 2010. Retrieved March 8, 2021.
  55. ^ Dan Eggen, "Ex-Hospital CEO Battles Reform Effort", Washington Post, May 11, 2009.
  56. ^ Mullins, Brody; Kilman, Scott (February 26, 2009). "Lobbyists Line Up to Torpedo Speech Proposals". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved April 2, 2009.
  57. ^ Edward Lee Pitts (March 28, 2009). "Conservatives worry that the cost of a government health plan can go in only one direction". World Magazine.
  58. ^ Sharockman, Aaron (April 22, 2010). "Is Rick Scott the top Republican governor candidate on Facebook?". Politifact. St. Petersburg Times, Miami Herald. Retrieved June 24, 2010.
  59. ^ Catherine Whittenburg (August 24, 2010). "Scott claims victory in Republican governor's race". The Tampa Tribune.
  60. ^ Smith, Adam C. (May 7, 2010). . St. Petersburg Times. Archived from the original on July 12, 2010. Retrieved June 29, 2010.
  61. ^ Scott for Florida (April 13, 2010). . YouTube. Archived from the original on June 25, 2014. Retrieved June 24, 2010.
  62. ^ Caputo, Marc. "Bill McCollum's attacks on rival Rick Scott clash with record". Miami Herald. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  63. ^ Deslatte, Aaron (October 26, 2010). "Governor's race: Rick Scott, Alex Sink save harshest words for last debate". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved May 30, 2011.
  64. ^ a b c CNBC (April 9, 2018). "Florida Gov. Rick Scott is running for Senate". CNBC. Retrieved August 29, 2018.
  65. ^ Florida Governor race for 2010, Florida Election Watch webpage; accessed August 16, 2015.
  66. ^ "Gov. Scott: I'll run again in 2014". Ocala.com. Retrieved January 23, 2014.
  67. ^ . Clearwater Gazette. May 15, 2014. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved June 6, 2014.
  68. ^ . Florida Division of Elections. Archived from the original on September 30, 2013. Retrieved June 6, 2014.
  69. ^ Aaron Deslatte (June 8, 2014). "Gov. Scott's ad blitz aims to hit Crist early". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
  70. ^ Gary Fineout (September 1, 2014). . The Republic. Archived from the original on September 14, 2014. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
  71. ^ Marc Caputo (September 21, 2014). "With $50 million in TV ad spending, Rick Scott-Charlie Crist race is one big marketing campaign". Miami Herald. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
  72. ^ Marc Caputo (October 22, 2014). "Scott says he will write his campaign a personal check, after all, but won't say how much". Miami Herald. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
  73. ^ Stein, Letitia (July 30, 2014). "In Florida governor's race, Democrat woos crucial black vote". Reuters. from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
  74. ^ "The race for the governor of florida". Before You Vote. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
  75. ^ Parti, Tarini (October 16, 2014). "Rick Scott faces the 'Fangate' heat". Politico. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
  76. ^ a b "Florida Department of State - Election Results". results.elections.myflorida.com.
  77. ^ a b Bousquet, Steve (January 4, 2018). "Solitary man: What Rick Scott's legacy as governor will look like". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved June 21, 2018.
  78. ^ "Sinking G.O.P. Poll Numbers May Put Florida in Play". New York Times. June 27, 2011.
  79. ^ "Florida Governor Rick Scott's Popularity Plunges To Record Low". HuffPost. December 6, 2011.
  80. ^ "Poll: Scott Approval Rating Falls To 31%". CBS. June 9, 2012.
  81. ^ "Rick Scott, America's eighth least popular Governor". Tallahassee Democrat. November 20, 2015.
  82. ^ "Gov. Scott Approval Rating Up". CBS. June 18, 2013.
  83. ^ "Scott approval rating improves". Port Charlotte Sun. August 26, 2015.
  84. ^ Henderson, Joe (April 16, 2017). "Rick Scott's approval: Economy trumps all". Port Charlotte Sun.
  85. ^ "Poll: Scott's favorability rising". The News-Press. December 3, 2017.
  86. ^ "Gubernatorial approval ratings (2015-2019)". BallotPedia.
  87. ^ "HB 7101". Flsenate.gov. Florida State Senate. Retrieved March 15, 2016.
  88. ^ Klas, Mary Ellen (June 14, 2016). "Gov. Rick Scott signs bill to speed up executions in Florida". Miami Herald. Retrieved October 15, 2016.
  89. ^ Liptak, Adam (January 12, 2016). "Supreme Court Strikes Down Part of Florida Death Penalty". The New York Times. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
  90. ^ Alvarez, Lizette (February 2, 2016). "Supreme Court Ruling Has Florida Scrambling to Fix Death Penalty Law". The New York Times. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  91. ^ Berman, Mark (March 7, 2016). "Florida death penalty officially revamped after the Supreme Court struck it down". Washington Post. Retrieved August 3, 2016.
  92. ^ Klas, Mary Ellen; Ovalle, David (October 14, 2016). "Court again tosses state death penalty; ruling raises bar on capital punishment". Miami Herald. Retrieved October 15, 2016.
  93. ^ a b Farias, Cristian (October 25, 2016). "Florida's Death Penalty Law Is Ruled Unconstitutional – Again". Huffington Post. Retrieved October 15, 2016.
  94. ^ De Jesus, Roy. "Florida Governors and the Death Penalty: Could DeSantis Pass Rick Scott?". www.baynews9.com.
  95. ^ a b c d e Leary, Alex. "Once eager to tout Trump friendship, Rick Scott now plays it down". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
  96. ^ a b Verhovek, John; Rodriguez, Lissette (August 26, 2018). "In Florida Senate race, Rick Scott treads carefully around Trump". ABC News. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
  97. ^ Caputo, Marc; Lima, Cristiano (October 7, 2016). "Scott, Rubio rebuke Trump". Politico. Retrieved August 29, 2018.
  98. ^ . CNN.com. June 1, 2011. Archived from the original on September 16, 2011. Retrieved September 28, 2011.
  99. ^ "Rick Scott says welfare recipients are more likely to use illicit drugs". PolitiFact.com. June 9, 2011. Retrieved September 28, 2011.
  100. ^ "Florida: Few Drug Users Among Welfare Applicants". The New York Times. Associated Press. September 28, 2011.
  101. ^ "Florida drops bid to require drug tests for welfare applicants". CBSnews.com. March 5, 2015. Retrieved August 12, 2015.
  102. ^ Allen, Greg (January 6, 2011). "Gov. Scott, Ex-CEO, Aims To Run Fla. Like A Business". NPR. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
  103. ^ Graves, Allison (April 10, 2018). "Create over 700,000 jobs". Scott-O-Meter. PolitiFact. Retrieved June 21, 2018.
  104. ^ Ostrowski, Jeff (January 9, 2018). "Florida economy in Rick Scott era: Success story or disappointment?". Palm Beach Post. Retrieved June 21, 2018.
  105. ^ Ellenbogen, Romy (April 24, 2018). "Expand school options for parents". Scott-O-Meter. PolitiFact. Retrieved June 21, 2018.
  106. ^ Alvarez, Lizette (December 9, 2012). "To Steer Students Toward Jobs, Florida May Cut Tuition for Select Major". The New York Times. Retrieved June 7, 2014.
  107. ^ Postal, Leslie (April 14, 2016). "Gov. Scott signs education bill that allows transfers to any school". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved June 21, 2018.
  108. ^ Clark, Kristen; Gurney, Kyra (June 15, 2017). "Governor signs controversial schools bill into law". Miami Herald. Retrieved June 21, 2018.
  109. ^ Postal, Leslie (June 15, 2017). "Gov. Scott signs controversial education bill at Orlando ceremony". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved June 21, 2018.
  110. ^ "House Bill 989 (2017) – The Florida Senate". flsenate.gov. Retrieved July 20, 2017.
  111. ^ Kaplan, Sarah (July 1, 2017). "New Florida law lets any resident challenge what's taught in science classes". Washington Post. Retrieved July 20, 2017.
  112. ^ Caputo, Marc (May 27, 2014). "Rick Scott won't say if he thinks man-made climate-change is real, significant". Miami Herald. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  113. ^ Kruse, Michael (September 3, 2014). "Cut short by Gov. Rick Scott, climate scientist finishes his thought". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  114. ^ Davenport, Coral (October 30, 2014). "Why Republicans Keep Telling Everyone They're Not Scientists". The New York Times. Retrieved March 20, 2015.
  115. ^ Goode, Darren (March 29, 2014). "Republicans on climate science: Don't ask us". Politico.com. Retrieved March 21, 2015.
  116. ^ Mazzei, Patricia (March 9, 2015). "Florida Gov. Rick Scott won't say if global warming is a problem". Miami Herald. Retrieved March 20, 2015.
  117. ^ Clines, Francis X. (March 12, 2015). "The Political Art of Not Being a Scientist". New York Times. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  118. ^ Mazzei, Patricia (March 9, 2015). "Florida governor denies environmental agency banned term 'climate change'". Miami Herald. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  119. ^ Allen, Greg (March 11, 2015). "Florida Gov. Scott Denies Banning Phrase 'Climate Change'". NPR. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  120. ^ Bosquet, Steve (March 20, 2015). "More 'climate change' silence from Florida Gov. Rick Scott's administration". Bradenton Herald. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  121. ^ Rohrer, Gray (March 19, 2015). "Scott official avoids 'climate change' in Senate hearing". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  122. ^ a b Geng, Lucia. "Did Rick Scott cut $700 million from water management?". Politifact. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
  123. ^ Florida, News Service of. "Gov. Scott declares emergency over toxic algae outbreaks". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
  124. ^ Fineout, Gary (November 9, 2017). "Gov. Rick Scott sued over wealth disclosure". Orlando Sentinel. from the original on November 9, 2017. Retrieved May 6, 2018.
  125. ^ Jim Saunders (November 30, 2018). "Court Blocks Lawsuit Wanting Scott to Disclose More about His Assets". Sunshine State News. News Service of Florida. from the original on December 5, 2018.
  126. ^ Mower, Lawrence (February 20, 2018). "Scott hasn't declared Senate candidacy, but his support of gun lobby draws attack ad". Miami Herald. Miami, Florida. from the original on February 20, 2018. Retrieved February 23, 2018.
  127. ^ "NRA Endorses Rick Scott for Governor in Florida". nrapvf.org. NRA-PVF. September 18, 2014. from the original on September 23, 2014.
  128. ^ Hammer, Marion M. (June 23, 2014). "ALERT: Governor Rick Scott Makes History Signing 5 Pro-gun Bills". NRA-ILA. National Rifle Association of America, Institute for Legislative Action. from the original on February 15, 2018. Retrieved February 23, 2018..
  129. ^ a b Sherman, Amy (February 22, 2018). "Florida Gov. Rick Scott made it illegal for doctors to talk to patients about guns, TV ad says". Politifact. Tampa Bay Times. from the original on February 23, 2018. Retrieved February 23, 2018.
  130. ^ Bowden, John (June 9, 2017). "Florida governor signs strengthened 'stand your ground' bill into law". The Hill. from the original on June 13, 2017. Retrieved June 9, 2017.
  131. ^ Mazzei, Patricia (February 23, 2018). "Defying N.R.A., Florida Lawmakers Back Raising Age Limits on Assault Rifles". The New York Times. New York City. from the original on February 23, 2018. Retrieved February 23, 2018.
  132. ^ Sweeney, Dan (March 7, 2018). "Florida House sends Stoneman Douglas gun and school bill to Gov. Scott". Sun-Sentinel. from the original on March 7, 2018. Retrieved March 8, 2018.
  133. ^ Sanchez, Ray; Yan, Holly (March 9, 2018). "Florida Gov. Rick Scott signs gun bill". CNN. from the original on March 9, 2018. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
  134. ^ Schweers, Jeffrey (March 9, 2018). "NRA sues Florida over gun bill same day Gov. Scott signed it into law". Tallahassee Democrat. from the original on March 9, 2018. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
  135. ^ Sherman, Amy (April 4, 2014). "Rick Scott wants to go back to denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, Charlie Crist says". PolitiFact. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  136. ^ a b Leary, Alex. "Pre-existing conditions latest flashpoint in Nelson-Scott battle". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  137. ^ a b c Glorioso, Alexandra; Caputo, Marc (June 11, 2018). "Scott mum on Trump's attack on pre-existing condition provision". Politico. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  138. ^ a b Sexton, Christine. "Gov. Rick Scott won't talk about Florida's part in Obamacare lawsuit". Orlando Weekly. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  139. ^ a b Greenberg, Jon (April 7, 2015). "Gov. Rick Scott shifts again on Medicaid expansion". PolitiFact. Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved April 13, 2018.
  140. ^ a b c Ryan, Benjamin (September 11, 2019). "'Rick Scott had us on lockdown': how Florida said no to $70m for HIV crisis". The Guardian. Retrieved September 15, 2019.
  141. ^ Henry, Devin (September 13, 2017). "Rick Scott's hurricane response boosts potential Senate run". The Hill. Retrieved June 20, 2018.
  142. ^ a b c d DeFede, Jim (June 12, 2018). "Exclusive: Rick Scott's 'Rookie Mistake' May Have Cost Taxpayers Millions". CBS Miami. Retrieved June 20, 2018.
  143. ^ a b c Bousquet, Steve. "Rick Scott appears to support Curbelo's immigration plan, but how would he vote?". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved August 29, 2018.
  144. ^ a b Alvarez, Lizette (May 5, 2011). "Florida Republicans Unite to Pass Immigration Bill". The New York Times. Retrieved August 29, 2018.
  145. ^ Gillin, Joshua; Drobnic Holan, Angie; Sherman, Amy. "Rating Gov. Rick Scott on his 2010 campaign promises". PolitiFact Florida. Retrieved August 29, 2018.
  146. ^ "Rick Scott on Immigration". www.ontheissues.org. Retrieved January 30, 2019.
  147. ^ a b Fox, Lauren (June 9, 2014). "Florida Gov. Rick Scott Signs In-State Tuition Bill for 'Dreamers'". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved November 8, 2018.
  148. ^ Fabian, Jordan (June 5, 2013). "License Bill Vetoed Despite Support". ABC News. Retrieved August 29, 2018.
  149. ^ Caputo, Marc; Glorioso, Alexandra (June 19, 2018). "Scott slams Trump family separation policy, demands answers from HHS". Politico. Retrieved June 20, 2018.
  150. ^ Bousquet, Steve; Leary, Alex (June 19, 2018). "Florida Republicans split on detaining children. Some stay with Trump, others object". Miami Herald. Retrieved June 20, 2018.
  151. ^ Iannelli, Jerry (January 27, 2019). "Here's a List of Companies Making Money From Miami's Child-Migrant Detention Camp". Miami New Times. Retrieved January 30, 2019.
  152. ^ Reedy, Joe. "Lawyer: Florida governor should end medical marijuana appeal". Associated Press. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  153. ^ McAuliffe, Danny (June 13, 2018). "Rick Scott talks pot, Donald Trump". Florida Politics. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  154. ^ Koh, Elizabeth. "John Morgan tells Gov. Scott: Drop appeal in smokeable medical marijuana case". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  155. ^ Bousquet, Steve. "Battle rages between Rick Scott, John Morgan over smokable medical marijuana". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  156. ^ a b c McGrory, Kathleen; Bedi, Neil (September 3, 2020). "Targeted". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
  157. ^ Mark I. Pinsky (November 3, 2010). "Florida Voters Pass Milestone Measures to End Gerrymandering". Politics Daily. Retrieved March 20, 2015.
  158. ^ Steve Bousquet (January 25, 2011). "Scott moves to delay redistrict plan". The Miami Herald. Retrieved February 24, 2016.
  159. ^ Mary Ellen Klas (February 3, 2011). . St. Petersburg Times. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  160. ^ Williams, Timothy. "Florida's Governor Rejects High-Speed Rail Line, Fearing Cost to Taxpayers", The New York Times, February 16, 2011; retrieved February 19, 2011.
  161. ^ Tracy, Dan; Schlueb, Mark (March 1, 2011). "Two lawmakers ask high court to force Scott to take high-speed rail money". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved February 24, 2016.
  162. ^ Kastenbaum, Steve. , cnn.com, March 4, 2011; retrieved February 24, 2016.
  163. ^ Clark, Lesley (May 30, 2011). . Tampabay.com. Archived from the original on March 9, 2011. Retrieved June 7, 2014.
  164. ^ a b c d e f g Klas, Mary Ellen (August 16, 2018). "Rick Scott killed a high-speed rail plan. Then All Aboard rolled up and he bought it". Miami Herald. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
  165. ^ a b c d e f g Bousquet, Steve (April 18, 2018). "Rick Scott has made enemies over voting rights – now it's an issue in his Senate race". Miami Herald. Retrieved April 19, 2018.
  166. ^ a b Bousquet, Steve. "A day after judge blasts state, counties act fast to hold early voting on campus". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved July 25, 2018.
  167. ^ a b Bousquet, Steve. "Judge: Florida's early voting-on-campus ban shows 'stark pattern of discrimination'". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved July 25, 2018.
  168. ^ a b c d e Pickett, Alex (May 31, 2018). "In Florida, Long Fight for Restored Vote Often Ends in Minutes". Courthouse News Service. Retrieved June 2, 2018.
  169. ^ a b Ramadan, Lulu. "Florida felon voting rights: Who got theirs back under Scott?". The Palm Beach Post. Retrieved October 25, 2018.
  170. ^ "Voting Rights Restoration Efforts in Florida | Brennan Center for Justice". brennancenter.org. Retrieved June 20, 2018.
  171. ^ Pathe, Simone (April 9, 2018). "Florida Gov. Rick Scott Announces Senate Campaign". Roll Call. Retrieved April 13, 2018.
  172. ^ Mazzei, Patricia (April 9, 2018). "Rick Scott Senate Run Returns Florida to Battleground". New York Times. Retrieved April 13, 2018.
  173. ^ "Florida Primary Election Results". The New York Times. August 28, 2018. Retrieved August 30, 2018.
  174. ^ Fineout, Gary. "Rick Scott wins GOP primary for Florida's U.S. Senate seat; faces Bill Nelson Nov. 6". TCPalm. Retrieved November 8, 2018.
  175. ^ a b Powers, Scott (September 26, 2018). "Rick Scott's campaign ad rebuts Democrats on Medicare fraud scandal". floridapolitics.com. Retrieved September 29, 2018.
  176. ^ Akin, Katie (August 16, 2018). "Nelson didn't pay payroll taxes. He didn't have to". Politifact. Retrieved September 29, 2018.
  177. ^ Sherman, Amy (September 27, 2018). "Gov. Rick Scott wrongly calls Sen. Bill Nelson a socialist". Politifact. Retrieved September 29, 2018.
  178. ^ Livni, Ephrat (November 10, 2018). "Recount: Florida has five days to tally more than 8 million ballots". Quartz. Retrieved June 7, 2019.
  179. ^ Woodall, Bernie (November 18, 2018). "Republican Scott secures Florida U.S. Senate seat after recount". Reuters. Retrieved November 18, 2018.
  180. ^ Taylor, Jessica (November 18, 2018). "Republican Rick Scott Wins Florida Senate Seat Over Incumbent Bill Nelson". NPR.org. Retrieved June 7, 2019.
  181. ^ Company, Tampa Publishing. "Rick Scott's involvement with super PAC shows blurred lines". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved April 18, 2021.
  182. ^ "New elections complaint for Rick Scott 'New Republican' PAC". Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government. September 10, 2018. Retrieved April 18, 2021.
  183. ^ "Ethics group files complaint against pro-Rick Scott PAC". Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government. July 26, 2018. Retrieved April 18, 2021.
  184. ^ Dixon, Matt (October 17, 2018). "Super PAC backing Scott's Senate effort raises $7M". Politico PRO. Retrieved April 18, 2021.
  185. ^ RobertsJune 7, Ray; Pm, 2018 at 12:47 (June 7, 2018). "Chicago billionaire Ken Griffin named finance chair for Rick Scott's super PAC". Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government. Retrieved April 18, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  186. ^ "Organizations Disclosing Donations to New Republican PAC, 2018 | OpenSecrets". www.opensecrets.org. Retrieved April 18, 2021.
  187. ^ Brendan Farrington; Gary Fineout (January 8, 2019). . Associated Press. Archived from the original on January 8, 2019.
  188. ^ Felicia Sonmez (January 8, 2019). "Florida's Rick Scott sworn in as senator". The Washington Post.
  189. ^ "Rick Scott sworn in as Florida Senator". WPTV. January 8, 2019.
  190. ^ Powers, Scott (January 31, 2019). "Rick Scott: Donald Trump should use executive power on border". Retrieved February 20, 2019.
  191. ^ Powers, Scott (February 15, 2019). "Rick Scott applauds Donald Trump's decision to declare national emergency; Democrats rail". Retrieved February 20, 2019.
  192. ^ By. "Rick Scott is using a word to describe Venezuela that no one else is. Is he right?". miamiherald. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
  193. ^ Jacobson, Louis; Sherman, Amy (May 16, 2019). "The problem with calling Venezuela's crisis under Maduro a genocide". Politifact. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
  194. ^ Levin, Jonathan (May 17, 2019). "Florida Senator on Venezuela: Time to Position U.S. Military". Bloomberg. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
  195. ^ "Senate Democrats Defend Voting In Line with Donald Trump on NSA Surveillance Bill". www.theintercept.com. January 20, 2018. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
  196. ^ "U.S. Senate: U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 116th Congress - 2nd Session". www.senate.gov. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
  197. ^ Daugherty, Alex (September 18, 2020). "Rick Scott wants a vote for Ruth Bader Ginsburg's replacement before Election Day". Miami Herald. Retrieved September 19, 2020.
  198. ^ "U.S. Senate: U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 117th Congress - 1st Session". www.senate.gov. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  199. ^ "U.S. Senate: U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 117th Congress - 1st Session". www.senate.gov. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  200. ^ Baitinger, Anthony Man, Brooke (January 7, 2021). "Florida Sen. Rick Scott votes to uphold objection to Pennsylvania results; Marco Rubio rejects objection there and in Arizona". sun-sentinel.com. Retrieved January 12, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  201. ^ Bowman, Bridget (November 10, 2020). "Senate GOP picks Florida's Rick Scott as NRSC chairman". Roll Call. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
  202. ^ Cockburn (September 12, 2022). . spectatorworld.com. London: Press Holdings. ISSN 0038-6952. OCLC 1766325. Archived from the original on September 12, 2022.
  203. ^ Fineout, Gary (March 16, 2021). "'Doesn't make any sense': DeSantis rejects Rick Scott's call to return stimulus money". Politico PRO. Retrieved March 17, 2021.
  204. ^ "Which senators supported a Jan. 6 Capitol riot commission". Washington Post. May 28, 2021.
  205. ^ Alfaro, Mariana; Scott, Eugene (March 17, 2022). "More than two dozen Senate Republicans demand Biden do more for Ukraine after voting against $13.6 billion for Ukraine". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 17, 2022.
  206. ^ "Sen. Rick Scott: SCOTUS is Right to Protect Life, Respect Federalism & Reverse Roe". U.S. Senator Rick Scott. June 24, 2022. Retrieved June 24, 2022.
  207. ^ Pengelly, Martin (August 18, 2022). "Rick Scott: don't apply for IRS jobs because Republicans will defund them". the Guardian. Retrieved August 25, 2022.
  208. ^ "Sen. Rick Scott Pens Open Letter to Job Seekers: Don't Work for Biden's IRS Army". U.S. Senator Rick Scott. August 16, 2022. Retrieved August 25, 2022.
  209. ^ Kapur, Sahil (August 17, 2022). "Republicans escalate IRS rhetoric as senator warns Americans not to apply for new jobs". NBC News. Retrieved August 25, 2022.
  210. ^ Zhou, Li (November 16, 2022). "Why some Republican senators are revolting against Mitch McConnell". Vox. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  211. ^ Quinn, Melissa; Turman, Jack (November 15, 2022). "Florida Sen. Rick Scott challenges Mitch McConnell for Senate GOP leader". CBS News. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  212. ^ Davis, Susan; Bustillo, Ximena; Schapitl, Lexie; Swartz, Katherine (November 16, 2022). "McConnell wins leadership race but GOP infighting continues". NPR. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  213. ^ Everett, Burgess (November 16, 2022). "'Nothing to negotiate': McConnell crushes Scott's right-flank rebellion". Politico. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  214. ^ Folley, Aris (June 1, 2023). "Here are the senators who voted against the bill to raise the debt ceiling". The Hill. Retrieved June 17, 2023.
  215. ^ "Rubio Reintroduces Bill to Make Daylight Saving Time Permanent". U.S. Senator for Florida, Marco Rubio. Retrieved March 23, 2023.
  216. ^ "Sens. Rick Scott, Tim Scott Reintroduce Bill to Protect Parental Rights, Combat Indoctrination in Schools". U.S. Senator Rick Scott. February 6, 2023. Retrieved March 23, 2023.
  217. ^ "Sen. Rick Scott Celebrates NDAA Passage, Big Wins for Florida's Military Bases". U.S. Senator Rick Scott. December 15, 2022. Retrieved March 23, 2023.
  218. ^ "Sen. Rick Scott's Bipartisan END FENTANYL Act to Help Border Patrol Stop Drug Smuggling Unanimously Passes in Senate". U.S. Senator Rick Scott. December 15, 2022. Retrieved March 23, 2023.
  219. ^ Mueller, Julia (March 28, 2023). "Rick Scott calls for 'automatic death penalty' for school shooters". The Hill. Retrieved March 29, 2023.
  220. ^ Cillizza, Chris (February 23, 2022). "Analysis: 26 things Rick Scott's 'rescue' plan for America would do". CNN. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  221. ^ Morgan, David (February 27, 2022). "U.S. senator says Republicans only deserve to govern if they adopt his agenda". Reuters. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  222. ^ Scott, Rick (February 22, 2022). "An 11 Point Plan to Rescue America". Politico. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  223. ^ Samuels, Brett (April 18, 2022). "White House targets Rick Scott plan on Tax Day". The Hill. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  224. ^ Benen, Steve (May 11, 2022). "Scott offers ugly response as Biden hits his plan like a piñata". MSNBC. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  225. ^ Gancarski, A. G. (March 31, 2022). "Democrats continue assault on Rick Scott's 'Rescue America' plan". Florida Politics. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  226. ^ Lesniewski, Niels (May 12, 2022). "New senior-focused ads from Democrats hit Scott's plans for Medicare, Social Security". Roll Call. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  227. ^ Weisman, Jonathan (March 31, 2022). "Income Taxes for All? Rick Scott Has a Plan, and That's a Problem". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  228. ^ Everett, Burgess; Levine, Marianne (March 1, 2022). "McConnell clashes with Rick Scott over Republican agenda". POLITICO. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  229. ^ Davis, D.L. (March 18, 2022). "Ron Johnson has not endorsed plan to phase out of Social Security, Medicare". PolitiFact. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  230. ^ Davis, D.L. (June 15, 2022). "Democrats still exaggerating GOP backing of Scott's plan on Social Security, Medicare, taxes". PolitiFact. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  231. ^ "12. Cutting Taxes - Rescue America". June 8, 2022. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  232. ^ Maloney, Emily L. (June 9, 2022). "Rick Scott revises plan for more people to pay income tax after bipartisan criticism". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  233. ^ Contorno, Steve. "Here are Rick Scott's committee assignments when he goes to Washington". Tampa Bay Times.
  234. ^ Bousquet, Steve (July 2, 2013). "Rick Scott is worth $83.8M, report shows". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved October 23, 2014.
  235. ^ "Documents reveal Gov. Rick Scott net worth at least $132.7 million". wesh.com. June 17, 2014. Retrieved October 23, 2014.
  236. ^ Bousquet, Steve (July 1, 2015). "Rick Scott's net worth grows to $147 million". Miami Herald. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
  237. ^ Fineout, Gary (June 30, 2017). "Florida Gov. Rick Scott Worth Nearly $150 Million". Associated Press.
  238. ^ Schorsch, Peter (June 30, 2018). "Rick Scott's new worth tops $232 million". Florida Politics. Retrieved June 30, 2018.
  239. ^ Bousquet, Steve; Klas, Mary Ellen. "Rick Scott reveals highest-ever family assets of at least $255 million". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved October 7, 2021.
  240. ^ Hall, Madison; Wang, Angela (December 14, 2021). "Meet the 25 wealthiest members of Congress". businessinsider.com. Retrieved October 16, 2022.
  241. ^ Sack, Kevin; Mazzell, Patricia (October 17, 2018). "To Avoid Conflicts, Rick Scott Created a Trust Blind in Name Only". The New York Times. Retrieved October 17, 2018.
  242. ^ a b Bousquet, Steve. "Revealed: Rick Scott's financial link to botched SunPass contract". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved October 24, 2018.
  243. ^ Contorno, Steve. "Rick Scott won't put his wealth in a blind trust anymore". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved February 13, 2019.
  244. ^ a b c Bousquet, Steve (August 27, 2018). "Rick and Ann Scott's financial trail leads to Cayman Islands tax haven". Miami Herald. Retrieved August 29, 2018.
  245. ^ Bousquet, Steve (August 1, 2018). "Florida Gov. Rick Scott's trust held investment linked to Putin". Miami Herald. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
  246. ^ a b Bousquet, Steve (August 7, 2018). "Rick Scott told Florida not to invest in companies linked to Venezuela, but he did". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
  247. ^ "Rick and Ann Scott's financial trail leads to Cayman Islands tax haven". miamiherald. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
  248. ^ Rick Scott biography October 19, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, rickscottforflorida.com; accessed June 7, 2014.
  249. ^ "Sen. Rick Scott says Naples home was 'swatted' while at dinner with his wife". WPTV News Channel 5 West Palm. December 29, 2023. Retrieved December 30, 2023.
  250. ^ "The 2010 Results Maps". POLITICO.
  251. ^ . Archived from the original on October 3, 2011.
  252. ^ "Governor". Florida Election Watch. Florida Division of Elections. Retrieved September 3, 2014.
  253. ^ "2018 Florida primary election results". Florida Department of State.
  254. ^ "Florida Election Watch – US Senator". floridaelectionwatch.gov.
  255. ^ a b "Health Plan Exec Honored by Nursing School". Columbia University Record. Columbia University. October 20, 1995. Retrieved April 5, 2009.

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rick Scott.
Party political offices
Preceded by Republican nominee for Governor of Florida
2010, 2014 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Republican nominee for U.S. Senator from Florida
(Class 1)
2018 		Most recent
Preceded by Chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee
2021–2023 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Governor of Florida
2011–2019 		Succeeded by
U.S. Senate
Preceded by U.S. Senator (Class 1) from Florida
2019–present
Served alongside: Marco Rubio 		Incumbent
U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial)
Preceded byas United States Senator from Missouri Order of precedence of the United States
as United States Senator from Florida
since January 3, 2019 		Succeeded byas United States Senator from Nevada
United States senators by seniority
81st 		Succeeded by

January 19, 2024
rick, scott, this, article, about, american, politician, businessman, other, people, with, similar, names, richard, scott, disambiguation, richard, lynn, scott, myers, born, december, 1952, american, attorney, businessman, politician, been, junior, united, sta. This article is about the American politician and businessman For other people with similar names see Richard Scott disambiguation Richard Lynn Scott ne Myers born December 1 1952 is an American attorney businessman and politician who has been the junior United States senator from Florida since 2019 4 5 A member of the Republican Party he was the 45th governor of Florida from 2011 to 2019 Rick ScottOfficial portrait 2019United States Senatorfrom FloridaIncumbentAssumed office January 8 2019Serving with Marco RubioPreceded byBill NelsonChair of the National Republican Senatorial CommitteeIn office January 3 2021 January 3 2023LeaderMitch McConnellPreceded byTodd YoungSucceeded bySteve Daines45th Governor of FloridaIn office January 4 2011 January 7 2019 a LieutenantJennifer Carroll 2011 2013 None 2013 2014 Carlos Lopez Cantera 2014 2019 Preceded byCharlie CristSucceeded byRon DeSantisPersonal detailsBornRichard Lynn Myers 1952 12 01 December 1 1952 age 71 Bloomington Illinois U S Political partyRepublicanSpouseAnn Holland m 1972 wbr Children2Residence s Naples Florida U S EducationUniversity of Missouri Kansas City BS Southern Methodist University JD SignatureWebsiteSenate websiteMilitary serviceBranch serviceUnited States NavyYears of service1971 1974 2 RankPetty officer third class 3 UnitUSS Glover FF 1098 Rick Scott s voice source source Rick Scott on his opposition to student debt reliefRecorded September 14 2022Scott is a graduate of the University of Missouri Kansas City and the Dedman School of Law at Southern Methodist University In 1987 after serving in the United States Navy and becoming a law firm partner he co founded Columbia Hospital Corporation Columbia later merged with another corporation to form Columbia HCA which eventually became the nation s largest for profit health care company 6 Scott was pressured to resign as chief executive of Columbia HCA in 1997 During his tenure as chief executive the company defrauded Medicare Medicaid and other federal programs The Department of Justice won 14 felony convictions against the company which was fined 1 7 billion in what was at the time the largest healthcare fraud settlement in U S history 7 8 Following his departure from Columbia HCA Scott became a venture capitalist and pursued other business interests In 2009 he founded Conservatives for Patients Rights Scott ran for governor of Florida in 2010 He defeated Bill McCollum in a vigorously contested Republican primary election and then narrowly defeated Democratic nominee Alex Sink in the general election 9 Scott was reelected in 2014 defeating former governor Charlie Crist He was barred by term limits from running for reelection in 2018 and instead ran for the United States Senate Scott won the 2018 US Senate election defeating Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson The initial election results were so close that they triggered a mandatory recount The recount showed that Scott had won by 10 033 votes Nelson then conceded the race Scott took office following the expiration of his term as governor of Florida on January 8 2019 He is running for reelection in 2024 Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career 2 1 Columbia Hospital Corporation 2 2 Columbia HCA 2 2 1 Fraud investigation and settlement 2 3 Venture capitalist 2 4 America s Health Network AHN 2 5 Solantic 2 6 Pharmaca 2 7 Other work 3 Early political career 3 1 Conservatives for Patients Rights 4 Governor of Florida 4 1 Elections 4 1 1 2010 4 1 2 2014 4 2 Tenure 4 2 1 Death penalty 4 2 2 Donald Trump 4 2 3 Drug testing for welfare recipients 4 2 4 Economy 4 2 5 Education 4 2 6 Environment 4 2 7 Financial disclosures 4 2 8 Gun laws 4 2 9 Health care 4 2 10 Hurricane Irma 4 2 11 Immigration and refugees 4 2 12 Medical marijuana 4 2 13 Predictive policing 4 2 14 Redistricting amendments 4 2 15 Transportation 4 2 16 Voting rights 5 U S Senate 5 1 Elections 5 1 1 2018 5 2 Tenure 5 2 1 Trump administration 5 2 2 Biden administration 5 2 3 Plan to Rescue America 5 3 Committee assignments 5 3 1 Current 5 3 2 Previous 6 Net worth and investments 6 1 Creation of blind trust 6 2 Controversial investments 7 Personal life 7 1 Swatting 8 Electoral history 9 Awards and honors 10 Notes 11 References 12 External linksEarly life and educationRick Scott was born Richard Lynn Myers 10 in Bloomington Illinois on December 1 1952 Scott never met his biological father Gordon William Myers 1926 1976 10 who was described by Scott s mother Esther J Scott nee Fry 1928 2012 as an abusive alcoholic 11 Scott s parents divorced in his infancy 11 In 1954 Esther married Orba George Scott Jr 1925 2006 a truck driver Orba adopted Rick who took his stepfather s surname and became known as Richard Lynn Scott 12 Scott was raised in North Kansas City Missouri the second of five children His family was lower middle class and struggled financially Esther Scott worked as a clerk at J C Penney among other jobs 13 14 Scott graduated from North Kansas City High School in 1970 15 He attended community college and enlisted in the United States Navy in 1970 16 Scott was in the Navy for 29 months 17 and served on the USS Glover FF 1098 as a radarman 18 Scott attended college on the G I Bill 18 and graduated from the University of Missouri Kansas City with a Bachelor of Science in business administration 19 He earned a juris doctor degree by working his way through Southern Methodist University 18 He was licensed by the Texas Bar to practice law on November 6 1978 20 CareerScott made his first foray into business while working his way through college and law school initially buying and reviving a failing doughnut shop the Flavor Maid Do Nut by adding workplace delivery instead of relying on foot traffic He later bought and revived another doughnut shop 21 After graduating from law school Scott worked as an attorney at the law firm of Johnson amp Swanson in Dallas Texas 22 Columbia Hospital Corporation In 1988 Scott and Richard Rainwater a financier from Fort Worth each put up 125 000 in working capital in their new company Columbia Hospital Corporation 23 they borrowed the remaining money needed to purchase two struggling hospitals in El Paso for 60 million 24 Then they acquired a neighboring hospital and shut it down Within a year the remaining two were doing much better 17 By the end of 1989 Columbia Hospital Corporation owned four hospitals with a total of 833 beds 24 In 1992 Columbia made a stock purchase of Basic American Medical which owned eight hospitals primarily in southwestern Florida In September 1993 Columbia did another stock purchase worth 3 4 billion of Galen Healthcare which had been spun off by Humana Inc several months earlier 25 At the time Galen had approximately 90 hospitals After the purchase Galen stockholders had 82 of the stock in the combined company with Scott still running the company 24 Columbia HCA In April 1987 Scott made his first attempt to buy the Hospital Corporation of America HCA While still a partner at Johnson amp Swanson Scott formed the HCA Acquisition Company with two former executives of Republic Health Corporation Charles Miller and Richard Ragsdale 26 With financing from Citicorp conditional on acquisition of HCA 27 the proposed holding company offered 3 85 billion for 80 million shares at 47 each intending to assume an additional 1 2 billion in debt for a total 5 billion deal After HCA declined the offer the bid was withdrawn 28 In 1994 Columbia Hospital Corporation merged with HCA forming the single largest for profit health care company in the country Scott became CEO of Columbia HCA 29 According to The New York Times in less than a decade Mr Scott had built a company he founded with two small hospitals in El Paso into the world s largest health care company a 20 billion giant with about 350 hospitals 550 home health care offices and scores of other medical businesses in 38 states 30 Fraud investigation and settlement On March 19 1997 investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Health and Human Services served search warrants at Columbia HCA facilities in El Paso and on dozens of doctors with suspected ties to the company 31 Eight days after the initial raid Scott signed his last SEC report as a hospital executive Four months later the board of directors pressured him to resign as chairman and CEO 32 He was succeeded by Thomas F Frist Jr 33 Scott was paid 9 88 million in a settlement and left owning 10 million shares of stock then worth more than 350 million 34 35 36 The directors had been warned in the company s annual public reports to stockholders that incentives Columbia HCA offered doctors could run afoul of a federal anti kickback law passed in order to limit or eliminate instances of conflicts of interest in Medicare and Medicaid 33 During Scott s 2000 deposition he pleaded the Fifth Amendment 75 times 37 In settlements reached in 2000 and 2002 Columbia HCA pleaded guilty to 14 felonies and agreed to a 600 million fine in what was at the time the largest health care fraud settlement in U S history Columbia HCA admitted systematically overcharging the government by claiming marketing costs as reimbursable by striking illegal deals with home care agencies and by filing false data about use of hospital space It also admitted to fraudulently billing Medicare and other health programs by inflating the seriousness of diagnoses and to giving doctors partnerships in company hospitals as a kickback for the doctors referring patients to HCA It filed false cost reports fraudulently billing Medicare for home health care workers and paid kickbacks in the sale of home health agencies and to doctors to refer patients In addition it gave doctors loans never intending to be repaid free rent free office furniture and free drugs from hospital pharmacies 38 7 In late 2002 HCA agreed to pay the United States government 631 million plus interest and 17 5 million to state Medicaid agencies in addition to 250 million paid up to that point to resolve outstanding Medicare expense claims 39 In all civil lawsuits cost HCA more than 2 billion to settle at the time this was the largest fraud settlement in U S history 40 41 Venture capitalist After leaving Columbia HCA in 1997 Scott launched Richard L Scott Investments based in Naples Florida originally in Stamford Connecticut 42 which has stakes in health care manufacturing and technology companies Between 1998 and 2001 he purchased 50 of CyberGuard Corporation for approximately 10 million Among his investors was Metro Nashville finance director David Manning 42 In 2006 CyberGuard was sold to Secure Computing for more than 300 million In February 2005 Scott purchased Continental Structural Plastics Inc CSP in Detroit Michigan In July 2006 CSP purchased Budd Plastics from ThyssenKrupp making CSP the largest industrial composites molder in North America 43 In 2005 2006 Scott provided the initial round of funding of 3 million to Alijor com named for the first three letters of his two daughters names which offered hospitals physicians and other health care providers the opportunity to post information about their prices hours locations insurance accepted and personal backgrounds online 44 Scott co founded the company with his daughter Allison 42 In 2008 Alijor was sold to HealthGrades In May 2008 Scott purchased Drives one of the world s leading independent designers and manufacturers of heavy duty drive chain based products and assemblies for industrial and agricultural applications and precision engineered augers for agricultural material handling construction and related applications Scott reportedly has an interest in a chain of family fun centers bowling alleys S amp S Family Entertainment in Kentucky and Tennessee led by Larry Schmittou a minor league baseball team owner 45 America s Health Network AHN In July 1997 Columbia HCA Healthcare purchased a controlling interest in America s Health Network AHN the first 24 hour health care cable channel They who pulled out of the deal on the day of the closing because Scott and Vanderwater were terminated causing the immediate layoffs of more than 250 people in Orlando Later that same year Scott became majority owner of AHN 46 In 1998 Scott and Vandewater led a group of investors who gave AHN a major infusion of cash so that the company could continue to operate By early 1999 the network was available in 9 5 million American homes 47 In mid 1999 AHN merged with Fit TV a subsidiary of Fox the combination was renamed The Health Network 48 Later that year in a deal between News Corp and WebMD the latter received half ownership of The Health Network WebMD planned to relaunch The Health Network as WebMD Television in the fall of 2000 with new programming but that company announced cutbacks and restructuring in September 2000 and in January 2001 News Corp regained 100 ownership 49 In September 2001 Fox Cable Networks Group sold The Health Network to its main rival the Discovery Health Channel for 155 million in cash plus a 10 equity stake in Discovery Health 50 Solantic nbsp Scott in 2007Solantic based in Jacksonville Florida was co founded in 2001 by Scott and Karen Bowling a former television anchor Scott met after Columbia bought what is now Memorial Hospital in 1995 13 Solantic opened its first urgent care center in 2002 It provides urgent care services immunizations physicals drug screening and care for injured workers The corporation attracts patients who do not have insurance cannot get appointments with their primary care physicians or do not have primary care physicians Solantic is an alternative to the emergency department care that these types of patients often seek or for not seeing a doctor at all In 2006 Scott said that his plans for Solantic were to establish a national brand of medical clinics 13 In August 2007 the company received a 40 million investment from a private equity firm and said that it expected to open 35 clinics by the end of 2009 with annual revenues of 100 million once all these clinics were open compared to 20 million at the time 51 As of March 2009 Solantic had 24 centers all in Florida 52 Solantic was the target of an employment discrimination suit that claimed that there had been a policy to not hire elderly or obese applicants preferring mainstream candidates It was settled for an undisclosed sum on May 23 2007 Scott responded to Salon regarding the claims of discrimination pointing out that currently 53 percent of Solantic s employees are white 20 percent black and 17 percent Hispanic 53 Pharmaca In 2003 Scott invested 5 5 million in Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacies 54 which operates drugstores pharmacies in the Western United States that offer vitamins herbal medicine skin products homeopathic medicines and prescriptions Other work In the 1990s Scott was a partner of George W Bush as co owner of the Texas Rangers 55 Early political careerConservatives for Patients Rights Main article Conservatives for Patients Rights nbsp Governor Scott speaking at the 2011 Conservative Political Action Conference CPAC in Orlando FloridaIn February 2009 Scott founded Conservatives for Patients Rights CPR which he said was intended to put pressure on Democrats to enact health care legislation based on free market principles 56 As of March 2009 he had given about 5 million for a planned 20 million ad campaign by CPR 57 Governor of FloridaElections 2010 Main article 2010 Florida gubernatorial election On April 9 2010 Scott announced his candidacy for the 2010 Republican Party nomination for governor of Florida 58 He ran against Democratic nominee Alex Sink 59 Susie Wiles former communications chief to Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton was Scott s campaign manager and Tony Fabrizio was his chief pollster It was reported on May 7 that Scott s campaign had already spent 4 7 million on television and radio ads 60 His first video advertisement was released to YouTube on April 13 61 During the primary campaign Scott s opponent Bill McCollum made an issue of Scott s role at Columbia HCA Scott countered that the FBI had never targeted him Marc Caputo of the Miami Herald contended that a 1998 bill sponsored by McCollum would have made it more difficult to prosecute Medicare fraud cases and was counter to his current views and allegations 62 Scott won the August primary with approximately 46 4 percent of the vote to McCollum s 43 4 By the date of the Tampa debate between Scott and Sink October 25 2010 Scott had spent 60 million of his own money on the campaign compared to Sink s reported 28 million 63 Scott campaigned as part of the Tea Party movement 64 The Fort Myers News Press quoted Scott as saying he spent roughly 78 million of his own money on the campaign although other figures indicate he spent slightly over 75 million He won the general election defeating Sink by around 68 000 votes or 1 29 65 He took office as the 45th governor of Florida on January 4 2011 2014 Main article 2014 Florida gubernatorial election In October 2011 Scott announced that he would run for reelection in 2014 66 His political funding committee Let s Get to Work had raised 28 million for his campaign as of May 2014 67 68 As of early June 2014 Scott had spent almost 13 million since March on television advertisements attacking former governor Charlie Crist who then appeared to be the likely Democratic nominee and who was eventually nominated The ads resulted in a tightening of the race mainly due to a decline in Crist s favorability ratings while Scott s favorability ratings did not increase 69 By late September 2014 Scott s television ad spending had exceeded 35 million 70 71 and in mid October reached 56 5 million compared to 26 5 million by Crist On October 22 it was reported that Scott s total spending had exceeded 83 million and he announced that having previously said he would not do so he would invest his own money into the campaign speculated to be as much as 22 million 72 Crist hoped to draw strong support from Florida s more than 1 6 million registered black voters an effort that was challenging given his previous political career as a Republican A September 2014 Quinnipiac University poll revealed his support among black voters was 72 well below the 90 analysts believed he needed to defeat Scott 73 Scott and Crist met in an October 15 debate held by the Florida Press Association at Broward College 74 Scott refused to take the stage for seven minutes because Crist had a small electric fan under his lectern The incident was dubbed fangate by media sources such as Politico 75 On November 4 2014 Scott and Carlos Lopez Cantera won the general election against Crist and Annette Taddeo Goldstein by 64 000 votes The Libertarian candidates Adrian Wyllie and Greg Roe received 223 356 votes 76 nbsp nbsp Scott s gubernatorial portraits during his first left and second right term Tenure nbsp Scott Florida attorney general Pam Bondi and other state officials nbsp Scott with the Coast Guard in Miami nbsp Scott speaking at Veterans Award CeremonyDuring Hurricane Irma Scott led Florida through the largest mass evacuation in U S history He signed a repeal of Florida s 1985 growth management laws reduced funding for water management districts reduced oversight at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and supported increased funding for Everglades restoration Scott supported permanent tax cuts and focused on job numbers rather than on running state agencies or making sweeping policy changes 77 Scott had a 26 percent approval rating in December 2011 the lowest among U S governors 78 79 but it steadily increased during the rest of his governorship 80 81 82 It stood at 45 percent in August 2015 83 and at 57 percent in April 2017 84 In the aftermath of Hurricane Irma later that year Scott s approval rating saw a high of 61 percent 85 Shortly before he left office his ratings had fallen to 47 percent approving and 41 percent disapproving 86 Death penalty In 2013 Scott signed the Timely Justice Act HB 7101 87 to overhaul the processes for capital punishment in Florida 88 The Supreme Court of the United States struck down part of this law in January 2016 in Hurst v Florida declaring in an 8 1 decision that a judge determining the aggravating facts to be used in considering a death sentence with only a non binding recommendation from the jury based on a majority vote was insufficient and violated the Sixth Amendment guarantee of a jury trial 89 90 The Florida Legislature passed a new statute to comply with Hurst v Florida changing the sentencing method to require a 10 juror supermajority for a sentence of death with a life sentence as the alternative 91 In October 2016 this new sentencing scheme was struck down by the Florida Supreme Court in a 5 2 ruling which held that a death sentence must be issued by a unanimous jury 92 The Florida Supreme Court ruled the law cannot be applied to pending prosecutions which means that until the Florida legislature acts there is no procedure or law allowing a prosecutor to seek the death penalty but it leaves open clarification needed the status of sentences passed under the twice struck down provisions 93 also left open by the January 2016 United States Supreme Court Hurst decision The Court granted Hurst a new sentencing hearing after the same Supreme Court decision 93 During Scott s tenure Florida executed more inmates 28 than had been executed under any other governor in the state s history 77 94 Donald Trump In the 2016 Republican primaries Scott endorsed Trump after Trump won the Florida primary 95 Scott chaired a pro Trump super PAC in the 2016 election 95 96 Unlike many other establishment Republicans Scott praised Trump as tough on terrorism and as an outsider during the 2016 Republican convention 95 When Trump sparred with the Muslim father of a slain U S soldier Scott said I m never going to agree with every candidate on what they re going to say 95 When the Donald Trump Access Hollywood tape was publicized in which Trump spoke of grabbing women by the pussy Scott rebuked Trump saying I m not following politics closely right now but this is terrible I don t agree with anyone talking like this about anyone ever 97 Drug testing for welfare recipients In June 2011 Scott signed a bill requiring those seeking welfare under the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to submit to drug screenings Applicants who fail a drug test may name another person to receive benefits for their children 98 In an interview with CNN host Don Lemon Scott said Studies show that people that are on welfare are higher users of drugs than people not on welfare and the bottom line is if they re not using drugs it s not an issue PolitiFact said this comment was half true Government researchers in 1999 2000 reported that 9 6 percent of people in families receiving some type of government assistance reported recent drug use compared to 6 8 percent among people in families receiving no government assistance at all 99 Preliminary figures from Florida s program showed that 2 5 of applicants tested positive for drugs with 2 declining to take the test while the Justice Department estimated that around 6 of Americans use drugs overall 100 The law was declared unconstitutional with the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit upholding that ruling in December 2014 101 The Scott administration declined to appeal the decision to the US Supreme Court Economy In Scott s 2010 gubernatorial campaign he promised to run the state like you run a business 102 In his gubernatorial platform he pledged to create 700 000 jobs in the state PolitiFact ruled in 2018 that Scott s job creation pledge was a Promise Kept 103 Under Scott Florida s job creation far outpaced the rest of the nation while wages were below average and poverty rates were above average During his tenure as governor Florida employers created nearly 1 5 million jobs and the state s employment grew 20 3 compared to 12 5 growth for the U S as a whole Florida s household income is lower than the national average with a widening gap At 15 8 the state s poverty rate is slightly above the national rate of 14 7 104 Education In his 2010 gubernatorial campaign Scott vowed to expand school choice PolitiFact rated this a Promise Kept due to Scott s push to expand school choice as governor School choice legislation signed by Scott includes the creation of the Hope Scholarship Program which subsidizes the cost of private school or allows a transfer to another public school for students who were bullied 105 In December 2012 Scott announced a plan to encourage students to pursue majors in engineering and science by reducing tuition for some majors 106 In 2016 Scott signed a bill allowing parents to pick any public school in the state for their children regardless of traditional attendance lines or county boundaries 107 In 2017 Scott signed a 419 million public school bill that included charter school expansion The bill was supported by House Republicans school choice proponents and conservative political groups and it was opposed by superintendents school boards parent groups and teachers unions 108 109 During the summer of 2017 Scott signed a bill HB 989 and SB 1210 that would allow any Florida resident to challenge the use or adoption of instructional materials in public schools 110 Proponents of the bill argued that it would allow parents to be more proactive in their child s education Opponents of the bill argued that it would allow more censorship especially for scientific topics like global warming and evolution 111 Environment Scott rejects the scientific consensus on climate change saying I m not a scientist 112 113 The quote or paraphrases thereof became talking points for some Republican political candidates in the 2014 election campaigns 114 115 When questioned by the press on March 9 2015 in Hialeah Florida Scott did not say whether he believes global warming is a problem or whether Florida s Department of Environmental Protection has made or is making preparations for its potential consequences 116 117 In March 2015 accusations were made that Scott s administration had instructed Department of Environmental Protection officials to avoid the terms climate change or global warming in official communications Scott denied that his administration had banned the terms 118 119 120 121 Scott cut 700 million from Florida s water management districts over his tenure as governor 122 The cuts stirred controversy in 2018 when Florida faced a water contamination crisis 122 123 Financial disclosures In 2017 Donald Hinkle a Democratic activist and lawyer filed a lawsuit claiming that Scott had not disclosed sufficient information about his wealth and holdings and may have underestimated his net worth Scott appealed to a three judge panel of the First Circuit Court of Appeals The appeals court granted a writ of prohibition barring the circuit judge from taking any further action in the case The five page ruling agreed with Scott that only the Commission on Ethics has constitutional authority to investigate Mr Hinkle s complaint 124 125 Gun laws As of February 2018 Scott had an A rating from the NRA Political Victory Fund NRA PVF indicating a record of supporting gun rights 126 The NRA PVF endorsed Scott in 2010 and 2014 stating in 2014 that he had signed more pro gun bills into law in one term than any other governor in Florida history 127 128 In 2011 Scott signed the Firearm Owners Privacy Act informally called Docs vs Glocks which made it illegal for doctors and mental health professionals to ask patients about their gun ownership unless they believed that this information is relevant to the patient s medical care or safety or the safety of others 129 Provisions of the law including the part forbidding doctors from asking about a patient s gun ownership were struck down as unconstitutional in 2017 by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit 129 On June 9 2017 Scott signed an expanded version of Florida s stand your ground law into law 130 In February 2018 after the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland Florida Scott stated his support for raising the minimum age to purchase a firearm from 18 to 21 at the time of the shooting 21 was the minimum age to buy a handgun but rifles could be purchased at age 18 He also announced his support of a ban on bump stocks Scott said I want to make it virtually impossible for anyone who has mental issues to use a gun requesting 500 million in funds for mental health and school safety programs 131 In March 2018 the Florida Legislature passed the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act which incorporated many of the measures Scott supported It raised the minimum age for buying firearms to 21 established waiting periods and background checks provided a program for the arming of some teachers and the hiring of school police banned bump stocks and barred potentially violent or mentally unhealthy people arrested under certain laws from possessing guns In all it allocated around 400 million 132 Scott signed the bill into law on March 9 133 That same day the National Rifle Association filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the law s provision banning gun sales to people under 21 NRA spokesperson Marion Hammer said We filed a lawsuit against the state for violating the constitutional rights of 18 to 21 year olds 134 Health care Scott has been a harsh critic of the Affordable Care Act Obamacare 135 but in his 2018 Senate campaign stopped harshly criticizing the bill 136 In 2017 he said that people with preexisting conditions should be protected 137 In June 2018 when the Trump administration sought to remove provisions of Obamacare protecting people with preexisting conditions Scott declined to criticize the administration 136 137 138 saying he did not know enough about it to comment 137 Scott has taken a number of positions on Medicaid expansion For much of his first term as governor he opposed Medicaid expansion in Florida saying it was too costly In 2013 he came out in support of Medicaid expansion and reiterated his support in 2014 when he was up for reelection 138 After being reelected Scott reversed his position and adamantly fought against efforts by the Florida Senate to pass Medicaid expansion in 2015 139 Scott rejected the Medicaid expansion because of his renewed fiscal concerns saying it is hard to understand how the state could take on even more federal programs 139 Scott has been accused of having fueled an HIV epidemic while governor by ensuring that Florida returned 54 million in unspent federal HIV prevention grants and blocking 16 million in CDC grants to Miami Dade and Broward counties 140 The effect of this rejection of federal funds combined with Scott s stance on Medicaid expansion has been described as helping explain why the state s HIV epidemic became almost peerlessly severe during Scott s time in office with the state accounting for 13 of the country s HIV diagnoses in 2017 140 Scott has opposed most federal grants due to his fiscal conservatism 140 Hurricane Irma Scott s handling of Hurricane Irma boosted his profile in advance of his U S Senate campaign with The Hill writing that his aggressive approach to Irma which saw him order an extensive evacuation ahead of the storm and coordinate disaster relief efforts as the storm came ashore has sent his political stock even higher 141 An investigation by WFOR TV found that after Hurricane Irma Scott ignored existing debris removal contracts and instead issued emergency contracts for hurricane clean up efforts 142 Florida state officials sent an email to several companies on September 11 inviting them to hand in bids for debris clean up by the next day 142 State officials believed new contracts were needed to speed up the removal process given the severity of Hurricane Irma 142 On September 13 state officials decided to use the services of MCM and Community Asphalt firms owned by contributors to the Republican Party and Scott s campaigns According to the television station the emergency contracts cost 28 to 30 million more than the existing contracts 142 Immigration and refugees In 2010 Scott ran for governor as an immigration hard liner 143 64 At the time he favored similar laws as Arizona s controversial Arizona SB 1070 which targeted illegal immigrants and criticized Florida lawmakers for not being tougher on illegal immigrants 144 143 Scott called for police to check individuals immigration status 144 By 2014 PolitiFact wrote that Scott had abandoned promises to get tough on illegal immigration 145 Over time he moderated his views on immigration 64 In 2011 Scott opposed giving in state tuition for illegal immigrants but reversed course in 2014 and signed a bill giving DREAMers in state tuition in an effort to place limits on how much state institutions can raise tuition each year 146 147 In 2013 Scott vetoed legislation that would have given DACA eligible immigrants the ability to obtain temporary driving licenses 148 147 By 2018 he spoke in favor of giving DREAMers a path to citizenship 143 In June 2018 Scott opposed the Trump administration family separation policy which involved separating children from their parents relatives or other adults who accompanied them in crossing the border sending the parents to federal jails and placing children and infants under the supervision of the U S Department of Health and Human Services In a letter to United States secretary of health and human services Alex Azar Scott wrote I have been very clear that I absolutely do not agree with the practice of separating children from their families This practice needs to stop now 149 150 Scott s administration awarded Comprehensive Health Services Inc CHSi a tax incentive package of 600 000 to expand in Cape Canaveral Florida CHSi runs the Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children which detains minor migrants including those separated from families at the border 151 Medical marijuana After voters approved a constitutional amendment to legalize medical marijuana Scott signed a bill passed by the legislature which allowed the use of medical marijuana but not smokeable medical marijuana 152 A judge ruled the ban on smokeable medical marijuana unconstitutional 153 Scott appealed the decision 154 155 Predictive policing On September 3 2020 the Tampa Bay Times released an investigative report into Scott appointed Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco s predictive policing program which relies on unproven algorithms 156 The program is designed to use counter terrorism and other military intelligence tactics to prevent property damage 156 Nocco was a Republican insider with limited law enforcement experience at the time he was appointed by Scott in 2011 156 Redistricting amendments In the 2010 elections Florida voters passed constitutional amendments banning gerrymandering of congressional and legislative districts 157 In February 2011 Scott withdrew a request to the United States Department of Justice to approve these amendments which according to The Miami Herald might delay the implementation of the redistricting plan because the Voting Rights Act requires preclearance of state laws likely to affect minority representation Scott said he wanted to make sure the redistricting was carried out properly 158 Several advocacy groups which sued Scott in federal court to compel him to resubmit the acts to the Justice Department clarification needed 159 Transportation On February 16 2011 Scott rejected 2 3 billion in federal funding to develop high speed rail between Tampa and Orlando He cited California s experience with high speed rail namely much lower than expected ridership and cost overruns that doubled the final price 160 In response a veto proof majority in the Florida Senate approved a letter rebuking Scott and asking the Department of Transportation to continue funding On March 1 2011 two Florida state senators filed a petition with the Florida Supreme Court to compel Scott to accept the rail funds on the grounds that he lacked constitutional authority to reject funds that had been approved by a prior legislature 161 On March 4 the Florida Supreme Court ruled that Scott s rejection of the rail funds did not violate the Constitution of Florida 162 In March 2011 Scott moved to have the Florida Department of Transportation amend its work plan to include 77 million for dredging PortMiami to a depth of 50 feet Once the port is dredged Panamax sized vessels coming through the expanded Panama Canal could load and unload cargo there 163 In 2018 Scott reversed course and supported a high speed rail project between Tampa and Orlando when the company All Aboard Florida sought to get taxpayer backed funding from state and federal governments 164 He argued that new budget surpluses following the recession could help fund the project 164 Scott and his wife had invested at least 3 million in the parent company of All Aboard Florida which had made donations to Scott s political campaigns 164 Voting rights Scott frequently sought to implement voter IDs as governor with numerous courts ruling against him in voting rights cases 165 166 167 He signed into law bills that created barriers to registering new voters limited early voting ended early voting on the Sunday before Election Day known as souls to the polls in African American churches and restricted the ability of ex felons to restore their voting rights In 2012 Scott attempted to purge non citizens from voter rolls just before the election a court stopped him from doing so and it was revealed that legitimate voters were on the voter rolls The Tampa Bay Times noted that under Scott s tenure Florida had the longest voting lines of any state in the 2012 election 165 After harsh criticism he expanded early voting hours and allowed early voting on the Sunday before Election Day 165 In 2016 Scott refused to extend registration deadlines after ordering evacuations due to Hurricane Matthew courts ultimately extended the deadline He signed legislation into law that rejected mail ballots where signatures on the ballot envelope did not match signatures in files in 2016 a court struck down the law 165 In 2014 Scott blocked a request by the city of Gainesville to use a facility at the University of Florida as a site for early voting 165 In July 2018 a judge ruled against Scott s prohibition of early voting on campus saying the ban showed a stark pattern of discrimination 166 167 In 2013 Scott ordered Pinellas County to close down sites where voters could submit mail ballots In 2012 a court ruled that Scott could not place heavy fines on groups that registered voters but failed to submit the registrations within 48 hours 165 Scott rolled back automatic restoration of rights for nonviolent crimes giving former felons a five to six year waiting period before they can apply for a restoration of voting rights 168 Of the approximately 30 000 applications from former felons to have their voting rights restored during his tenure Scott approved approximately 3 000 168 A 2018 investigation by the Palm Beach Post found that during his governorship Scott restored the voting rights of three times as many white men as black men and that blacks accounted only for 27 of those granted voting rights despite blacks being 43 of those released from state prisons in the past 20 years 169 The percentage of blacks among those whose voting rights were restored was the lowest in more than 50 years and Scott restored a higher share of Republican voting rights than Democratic voting rights than in almost 50 years 169 A clemency board set up by Scott held hearings on applications but there were no standards on how to judge the worthiness of individual applications In March 2017 seven former felons filed a class action lawsuit arguing that the clemency board s decisions were inconsistent vague and political 168 In February 2018 a U S District Court described Scott s process as arbitrary and unconstitutional and ruled that he had to create a new process to restore felons voting rights 165 168 The ruling said that Scott and his clemency board had unfettered discretion to deny voting rights for any reason and that to vote again disenfranchised citizens must kowtow before a panel of high level government officials over which Florida s governor has absolute veto authority No standards guide the panel Its members alone must be satisfied that these citizens deserve restoration 168 The Brennan Center for Justice described the clemency rules issued by Scott in 2011 as among the most restrictive in the country 170 U S SenateElections 2018 Main article 2018 United States Senate election in Florida After months of speculation about a potential run Scott officially announced on April 9 2018 that he would challenge incumbent Democratic U S Senator Bill Nelson in the 2018 election 171 172 Scott defeated Rocky De La Fuente in the Republican primary 173 174 In the general election Scott s involvement in a large Medicare fraud case stirred controversy 8 175 Scott responded with ads accusing Nelson of having cut Medicare benefits and stolen from Medicare fact checkers found that both of Scott s assertions were false 176 175 During the campaign Scott called Nelson a socialist an assertion PolitiFact described as pants on fire false 177 Scott sought to avoid mentioning Trump and at times criticized or distanced himself from actions of the Trump administration whereas in the past he had used his friendship with Trump to boost his profile and had been an early and vocal supporter of Trump in 2016 95 Trump endorsed Scott for Senate 96 The initial election results showed Scott leading Nelson by 12 562 votes or 0 15 of the vote Under Florida law a manual recount is triggered if election results show a margin of less than 0 5 of the vote 178 Both candidates filed lawsuits in connection with the recount After the recount Florida elections officials announced on November 18 2018 that Scott had prevailed Scott received 50 05 of the vote to Nelson s 49 93 the margin of victory was 10 033 votes out of 8 19 million votes cast Nelson then conceded 179 It was the most expensive Senate race in the nation in 2018 180 After the race Scott s Super PAC New Republican PAC received criticism from across the political spectrum for its aggressive practices and was the subject of several FEC complaints for multiple violations of federal election law 181 182 183 the Super PAC s finances are chaired by hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin who personally donated at least 10 million to the PAC 184 185 186 Tenure The Senate term for the 116th Congress began on January 3 2019 but Scott s term as governor ended on January 8 On December 4 2018 Scott s office announced that he would finish his term as governor and not resign early 5 Scott attended the ceremonial swearing in of his successor as governor Ron DeSantis on the morning of January 8 2019 in front of Florida s historic Old Capitol 187 Scott left the ceremony early to fly to Washington D C and was sworn in to the Senate by Vice President Mike Pence later that afternoon 188 5 189 Trump administration nbsp Scott President Donald Trump and Senator Marco Rubio aboard Air Force One in 2019 In January 2019 Scott encouraged Trump to declare a national emergency to build a border wall if Congress would not give him the funds to do so 190 In February 2019 when Trump declared a national emergency Scott applauded the decision 191 In April 2019 amid calls for an American military intervention in Venezuela Scott said that the Maduro regime was perpetrating a genocide and that the U S was not aggressive enough about the situation Fact checkers and experts described Scott s assertion of a genocide as false and misguided 192 193 Scott called on the U S to position its military assets to be prepared to respond to events in Venezuela 194 In May 2020 Scott voted for an amendment co sponsored by Senators Steve Daines and Ron Wyden that would have required federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies to obtain federal court warrants when collecting web search engine data from American citizens nationals or residents under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act FISA 195 196 After Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on September 18 2020 Scott sided with Senator Mitch McConnell and called on her replacement to be voted on before that year s presidential election 197 After Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election while making false claims of fraud Scott voted to object to seating the electors from Pennsylvania but voted against the other objection raised for seating the electors from Arizona Both objections were rejected by the Senate 92 7 and 93 6 respectively 198 199 200 Biden administration In April 2021 Scott ran unopposed for the chairmanship of the National Republican Senatorial Committee and was formally selected on November 10 2020 succeeding Senator Todd Young 201 202 In March 2021 Scott voted against the American Rescue Plan Act after it passed he called upon Florida and other states to reject federal assistance from the package 203 In May 2021 Scott voted against creating an independent commission to investigate the 2021 United States Capitol attack 204 On March 10 2022 Scott was one of 31 Republicans to vote against a 1 5 trillion spending bill that included 13 6 billion in military assistance for Ukraine s defense arguing that it was filled with lawmakers pet projects On March 17 he was one of more than two dozen Senate Republicans who demanded that President Biden send Ukraine more support 205 Scott supported the overturning of Roe v Wade in June 2022 saying that Roe v Wade was flawed legal reasoning and that the Supreme Court had defended human dignity and federalism 206 In August 2022 Scott published an open letter encouraging job seekers not to apply for newly funded positions at the IRS vowing that Republicans if they took control of Congress in January 2023 would quickly defund those jobs 207 The letter to job seekers included the statement The IRS is making it very clear that you not only need to be ready to audit and investigate your fellow hardworking Americans your neighbors and friends you need to be ready and to use the IRS s words willing to kill them 208 209 On November 14 2022 Scott announced he would attempt to challenge incumbent Mitch McConnell for the position of Senate Minority Leader in the 118th United States Congress the first challenge McConnell had faced for the position since winning it in 2006 210 Scott said the status quo is broken and big change is needed and that Senate Republican leadership needed to listen to Republican voters calls for action and start governing in Washington like we campaign back at home in the wake of the party s failure to gain Senate seats in that year s elections 211 Scott received 10 votes to McConnell s 37 with one senator voting present 212 The vote was held by secret ballot senators who publicly confirmed voting for Scott included Mike Braun Josh Hawley Ted Cruz Ron Johnson and Lindsey Graham 213 Scott was among the 31 Senate Republicans who voted against final passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 214 Notable Senate bills that Scott has sponsored or co sponsored include the Sunshine Protection Act which makes daylight saving time in the United States permanent the PROTECT Kids Act which cuts federal funding to schools that allow students to change their preferred pronouns and keep their sexual orientation from their parents the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 and the END FENTANYL Act Scott also expressed support for automatic capital punishment of school shooters in the wake of the Covenant School shooting in Nashville 215 216 217 218 219 Plan to Rescue America On February 22 2022 Scott released his controversial 11 Point Plan to Rescue America in response to Democratic criticism that Republicans were unwilling to provide any kind of agenda should they win the House and or Senate that year 220 221 Particularly singled out were a proposal that would force all Americans to pay at least some income tax to have skin in the game and one that would make all federal legislation sunset within five years While the latter proposal did not mention any specific legislation Social Security and Medicare were singled out elsewhere as programs that could be affected Other proposals in the plan included closing the United States Department of Education punishing universities that practice affirmative action stripping all funding from sanctuary cities completing the Trump wall reducing the size of the federal government and its workforce mandatory voter ID increasing police funding and law and order policies mandating the Pledge of Allegiance in schools allowing legal action against social media platforms for deplatforming banning transgender women from participating in women s sports banning the supposed teaching of critical race theory expanding religious freedom and various attacks on wokeness and diversity training 222 Democrats including President Biden strongly attacked the plan 223 224 225 The Republican response was mixed 226 227 Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell criticized the provisions on income tax and sunsetting federal legislation and Senator John Cornyn said the plan is not an approach embraced by the entire Republican conference and not something that should be focused on until after the election 228 Senator Ron Johnson said he supported Scott for releasing his platform and agreed with most of it 229 Senators Mike Braun and Tommy Tuberville also praised the platform 230 On June 8 2022 Scott released a revision of the plan that replaced the income tax proposal with a proposal not to provide government assistance to able bodied Americans under 60 without young children or incapacitated dependents who are not working He also added a 12th point containing various tax proposals and clarifying that the plan cuts taxes 231 in response to Biden s criticisms of his income tax proposal 232 Committee assignments nbsp Scott greeting General James H Dickinson at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing March 2023Scott has served or is serving on the following committees 233 Current Armed Services Subcommittee on Airland Subcommittee on Cybersecurity Subcommittee on Personnel Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Federal Spending Oversight and Emergency Management Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs and Federal Management Budget Aging Special Previous Commerce Science and Transportation served until February 2023 Caucus Senate Republican ConferenceNet worth and investmentsScott s net worth was estimated at US 219 million in 2010 84 million in 2012 and 133 million in 2013 234 235 On July 1 2015 it was reported that Scott s net worth had grown to 147 million 236 149 million on December 31 2016 237 and 232 million on December 31 2017 238 For August 2018 his net worth was estimated at 255 million 239 Based on financial disclosure reports covering 2020 Business Insider reports that Scott has a minimum net worth of just over 200 million making him the wealthiest member of Congress 240 Creation of blind trust Early in his gubernatorial tenure Scott said he created a blind trust for his holdings to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest In October 2018 The New York Times reported that the trust in question was blind in name only and that there were various ways in which Scott could know what his precise holdings were The holdings in question included investments in companies and funds that Scott could have had an impact on through his administration s policies 241 The trust in question was managed by one of Scott s former personal assistants from before he became governor 242 In February 2019 Scott announced that he would no longer keep his holdings in a trust 243 Controversial investments In 2017 Scott and his wife held stocks in firms that did business with the Maduro government in Venezuela and a shipping firm with close ties to Russia 244 245 246 Scott had been a harsh critic of the Maduro regime and chastised companies that invested in Venezuela saying Any organization that does business with the Maduro regime cannot do business with the state of Florida 246 By 2018 Scott and his wife no longer held stocks in the firms with links to Russia or Venezuela 244 In a July 2018 financial disclosure statement Scott and his wife reported earnings of at least 2 9 million in hedge funds registered in the Cayman Islands a well known tax haven The financial statement said that the assets were held in a blind trust and a 2018 campaign spokesperson said Scott did not have a role in selecting particular investments 244 Scott and his wife invested at least 3 million in the parent company of All Aboard Florida a rail investment company that proposed to build high speed rail between Orlando and Tampa 164 247 In 2018 Scott supported the efforts of the company to build the rail and get taxpayer financing 164 He had previously early in his tenure as governor rejected 2 3 billion in federal funding to develop high speed rail between Tampa and Orlando 164 Scott stated the original project was fiscally irresponsible given the recession and he supported a public private partnership approach when the state s finances were in order 164 Scott was an investor in the firm Conduent Inc which was awarded a 287 million Florida contract in 2015 to manage SunPass the toll program in the state of Florida Due to glitches in SunPass motorists were charged bank fees and overdraft charges and the Florida Department of Transportation was criticized for failing to take action Scott a Conduent investor defended the department s handling of the SunPass controversy 242 Personal life nbsp Scott s wife Ann HollandOn April 20 1972 Scott then aged 19 married his high school sweetheart Frances Annette Holland born May 11 1952 who was also 19 years old The couple has two daughters and six grandsons 13 They live in Naples Florida and are founding members of Naples Community Church 248 Swatting Scott was swatted in December as part of the 2023 swatting of American politicians 249 Electoral history2010 Florida gubernatorial election Republican primary 250 Party Candidate Votes Republican Rick Scott 595 474 46 4 Republican Bill McCollum 557 427 43 4 Republican Mike McCalister 130 056 10 1 Total votes 1 282 957 100 0 2010 Florida gubernatorial election 251 Party Candidate Votes Republican Rick Scott Jennifer Carroll 2 619 335 48 87 3 31 Democratic Alex Sink Rod Smith 2 557 785 47 72 2 62 Independence Peter Allen 123 831 2 31 N AIndependent C C Reed 18 842 0 35 N AIndependent Michael E Arth de es fr ja zh 18 644 0 35 N AIndependent Daniel Imperato 13 690 0 26 N AIndependent Farid Khavari 7 487 0 14 N AWrite in 121 0 00 N APlurality 61 550 1 15 5 92 Total votes 5 359 735 100 0 N ARepublican gain from Independent2014 Florida gubernatorial election Republican primary 252 Party Candidate Votes Republican Rick Scott Incumbent 831 887 87 65 Republican Elizabeth Cuevas Neunder 100 496 10 59 Republican Yinka Adeshina 16 761 1 77 Total votes 949 144 100 0 2014 Florida gubernatorial election 76 Party Candidate Votes Republican Rick Scott Carlos Lopez Cantera incumbent 2 865 343 48 14 0 73 Democratic Charlie Crist Annette Taddeo 2 801 198 47 07 0 65 Libertarian Adrian Wyllie Greg Roe 223 356 3 75 N AIndependent Glenn Burkett Jose Augusto Matos 41 341 0 70 N AIndependent Farid Khavari Lateresa A Jones 20 186 0 34 0 20 Write in 137 0 00 0 00 Total votes 5 951 571 100 0 N ARepublican hold2018 United States Senate election in Florida Republican primary 253 Party Candidate Votes Republican Rick Scott 1 456 187 88 61 Republican Rocky De La Fuente 187 209 11 39 Total votes 1 643 396 100 0 2018 United States Senate election in Florida 254 Party Candidate Votes Republican Rick Scott 4 099 505 50 06 7 82 Democratic Bill Nelson incumbent 4 089 472 49 93 5 30 Write in 607 lt 0 01 N ATotal votes 8 190 005 100 0 N ARepublican gain from DemocraticAwards and honorsTime magazine America s 25 Most Influential People June 1996 17 Financial World magazine silver award for the CEO of the Year 1995 255 Columbia University School of Nursing Second Century Award for Excellence in Health Care 1995 255 Notes Because Ron DeSantis and Jeannette Nunez took their oaths of office ahead of time they became governor and lieutenant governor at midnight on January 8 rather than waiting for the inaugural ceremony Thus Scott s and Lopez Cantera s terms ended at the end of January 7 1 References DeSantis already governor when ceremony begins Tampa Bay Times January 5 2019 Retrieved January 9 2019 Summary of Information on Rick Scott Thepoliticalguide com Retrieved May 30 2011 Oh if only Florida had a governor who liked businesspeople Blogs orlandosentinel com Archived from the original on November 4 2011 Retrieved May 30 2011 Rick Scott sworn in as Florida s newest U S senator WJXT January 8 2019 a b c Greenwood Max December 4 2018 Rick Scott delays Senate swearing in ceremony The Hill Retrieved December 4 2018 Hospital Corporation of America Learning from Past Mistakes PDF Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative University of New Mexico Retrieved September 9 2016 a b Sherman Amy March 3 2014 Rick Scott oversaw the largest Medicare fraud in U S history Florida Democratic Party says Politifact Retrieved April 19 2018 a b Glorioso Alexandra Caputo Marc August 30 2018 Democrats Medicare fraud is fungus Scott will never get rid of Politico Retrieved October 26 2018 Smith Ben April 13 2010 Health Care Figure Running for Florida Governor Politico Retrieved February 24 2016 a b Smolenyak Megan September 17 2018 One Less Secret for Rick Scott Retrieved November 8 2018 a b RICK SCOTT Fort Myers Florida Weekly July 9 2014 Retrieved November 8 2018 Rick Scott the TV image well known Rick Scott the man is not Archived April 30 2013 at the Wayback Machine accessed March 8 2014 a b c d M C Moewe April 17 2006 Ex Columbia chief helps grow Solantic Jacksonville Business Journal Retrieved August 16 2015 Obituary for Esther Scott accessed March 8 2014 Montgomery Ben Young Rick Scott recalled as driven frugal studious focused Tampa Bay Times Archived from the original on June 7 2013 Retrieved November 12 2012 Chrystal Hayes October 13 2018 Florida Governor Rick Scott s Navy Hat Under Attack USA Today a b c Time 25 Time June 17 1996 Retrieved April 5 2009 dead link a b c U S Senator Rick Scott was sworn in to the Senate in January 2019 senate gov Rick Scott s Biography vote smart Profile State Bar of Texas website accessed June 7 2014 Bousquet Steve Rick Scott the TV image is well known Rick Scott the man is not Tampa Bay Times Archived from the original on February 15 2017 Retrieved February 19 2018 Leary Alex Rick Scott raising money in Texas tampabay com Retrieved November 8 2018 Milt Freudenheim October 4 1993 Largest Publicly Held Hospital Chain Is Planned The New York Times a b c Floyd Norris October 6 1994 Efficiencies of scale are taken to the nth degree at Columbia The New York Times Retrieved August 16 2015 Kathryn Jones November 21 1993 A Hospital Giant Comes to Town Bringing Change The New York Times Hospital Corp Bid Is Dropped The New York Times April 22 1987 Milt Freudenheim October 5 1993 The Hospital World s Hard Driving Money Man The New York Times HCA Board Takes No Action on 3 85 Billion Takeover Bid Associated Press April 17 1987 Kelman Brett August 16 2018 HCA From single hospital to health care behemoth Tennessean com Retrieved October 26 2018 Eichenwald Kurt July 26 1997 2 Leaders Are Out at Health Giant as Inquiry Goes On The New York Times Retrieved October 26 2018 Kurt Eichenwald March 21 1997 U S Expands Search of Columbia HCA in Texas The New York Times Retrieved March 14 2019 Eichenwald Kurt July 26 1997 2 Leaders are out at health giant as inquiry goes on The New York Times Retrieved August 16 2015 a b Columbia HCA reports warned Rick Scott of potential legal problems TampaBay Archived from the original on May 2 2013 Retrieved December 23 2013 Korten Tristram September 30 2009 Rick Scott profits off the uninsured Salon Archived from the original on May 11 2010 Retrieved December 18 2018 Hospital Firm Ousts Its Founder Columbia Hca Tries To Stop Slide Thefreelibrary com July 26 1997 Retrieved May 30 2011 Moewe M C April 17 2006 Ex Columbia chief helps grow Solantic Amy Sherman June 17 2014 Rick Scott took the 5th Amendment 75 times Democratic party ad says Politifact com Retrieved November 19 2018 Ackman Dan Disaster Of The Day HCA Forbes Retrieved October 26 2018 Julie Appleby December 18 2002 HCA to settle more allegations for 631M USA Today Accomplishments of the Department of Justice 2001 09 PDF Retrieved May 30 2011 Sherman Amy Rick Scott oversaw the largest Medicare fraud in the nation s history Florida Democratic Party says Miami Herald Retrieved November 6 2014 a b c Drew Ruble Great Scott Archived August 9 2009 at the Wayback Machine businesstn com July 2006 retrieved June 23 2009 LLC Richard L Scott Investments Richard L Scott Investments Completes Acquisition of ThyssenKrupp Budd Company s Plastics Division with Portfolio Company Continental Structural Plastics prnewswire com Retrieved October 10 2016 Lisa Sibley July 28 2008 Alijor s online directory of providers growing San Jose Business Journal Retrieved August 16 2015 25 Emerging Companies NashvillePost com December 1 2002 retrieved June 23 2009 Former Columbia HCA official gains 9 9 million in severances Oklahoma City Journal Record November 14 1997 Retrieved August 16 2015 Lisa Napoli February 22 1999 Where Dr Spock Meets E R on Line The New York Times Retrieved June 7 2014 Jill Krueger June 4 1999 AHN getting fit with Fox TV Cable start up gets backing distribution muscle with network merger Orlando Business Journal Linda Moss January 8 2001 News Corp Gets All of Health Network Multichannel News Retrieved August 16 2015 Discovery snaps up rival health network Media Life Magazine September 4 2001 Urvaksh Karkaria August 15 2007 Solantic to expand well beyond state The urgent care center is planning to open 35 more clinics by the end of 2009 Jacksonville Times Union Archived from the original on March 4 2016 Retrieved August 16 2015 Phil Galewitz April 1 2009 Bethesda hospital Solantic to open urgent care center Palm Beach Post Retrieved August 16 2015 Tristram Korten October 10 2009 A healthcare reform foe s alleged history of discrimination Salon com Retrieved June 7 2014 Pharmaca Completes 5 5 Million Equity Financing With Richard L Scott to Open New Pharmaca Locations New Hope Network September 29 2010 Retrieved March 8 2021 Dan Eggen Ex Hospital CEO Battles Reform Effort Washington Post May 11 2009 Mullins Brody Kilman Scott February 26 2009 Lobbyists Line Up to Torpedo Speech Proposals The Wall Street Journal Retrieved April 2 2009 Edward Lee Pitts March 28 2009 Conservatives worry that the cost of a government health plan can go in only one direction World Magazine Sharockman Aaron April 22 2010 Is Rick Scott the top Republican governor candidate on Facebook Politifact St Petersburg Times Miami Herald Retrieved June 24 2010 Catherine Whittenburg August 24 2010 Scott claims victory in Republican governor s race The Tampa Tribune Smith Adam C May 7 2010 Rick Scott multimillionaire political rookie gunning to be governor of Florida St Petersburg Times Archived from the original on July 12 2010 Retrieved June 29 2010 Scott for Florida April 13 2010 Accountable YouTube Archived from the original on June 25 2014 Retrieved June 24 2010 Caputo Marc Bill McCollum s attacks on rival Rick Scott clash with record Miami Herald Retrieved August 16 2015 Deslatte Aaron October 26 2010 Governor s race Rick Scott Alex Sink save harshest words for last debate Orlando Sentinel Retrieved May 30 2011 a b c CNBC April 9 2018 Florida Gov Rick Scott is running for Senate CNBC Retrieved August 29 2018 Florida Governor race for 2010 Florida Election Watch webpage accessed August 16 2015 Gov Scott I ll run again in 2014 Ocala com Retrieved January 23 2014 Scott campaign committee collect 1 3M Clearwater Gazette May 15 2014 Archived from the original on July 14 2014 Retrieved June 6 2014 Let s Get to Work Campaign Finance Activity Florida Division of Elections Archived from the original on September 30 2013 Retrieved June 6 2014 Aaron Deslatte June 8 2014 Gov Scott s ad blitz aims to hit Crist early Orlando Sentinel Retrieved December 22 2014 Gary Fineout September 1 2014 Florida Gov Rick Scott and ex Gov Charlie Crist bash each other as campaigns kick into gear The Republic Archived from the original on September 14 2014 Retrieved December 22 2014 Marc Caputo September 21 2014 With 50 million in TV ad spending Rick Scott Charlie Crist race is one big marketing campaign Miami Herald Retrieved December 22 2014 Marc Caputo October 22 2014 Scott says he will write his campaign a personal check after all but won t say how much Miami Herald Retrieved December 22 2014 Stein Letitia July 30 2014 In Florida governor s race Democrat woos crucial black vote Reuters Archived from the original on October 6 2014 Retrieved December 22 2014 The race for the governor of florida Before You Vote Retrieved December 22 2014 Parti Tarini October 16 2014 Rick Scott faces the Fangate heat Politico Retrieved December 22 2014 a b Florida Department of State Election Results results elections myflorida com a b Bousquet Steve January 4 2018 Solitary man What Rick Scott s legacy as governor will look like Tampa Bay Times Retrieved June 21 2018 Sinking G O P Poll Numbers May Put Florida in Play New York Times June 27 2011 Florida Governor Rick Scott s Popularity Plunges To Record Low HuffPost December 6 2011 Poll Scott Approval Rating Falls To 31 CBS June 9 2012 Rick Scott America s eighth least popular Governor Tallahassee Democrat November 20 2015 Gov Scott Approval Rating Up CBS June 18 2013 Scott approval rating improves Port Charlotte Sun August 26 2015 Henderson Joe April 16 2017 Rick Scott s approval Economy trumps all Port Charlotte Sun Poll Scott s favorability rising The News Press December 3 2017 Gubernatorial approval ratings 2015 2019 BallotPedia HB 7101 Flsenate gov Florida State Senate Retrieved March 15 2016 Klas Mary Ellen June 14 2016 Gov Rick Scott signs bill to speed up executions in Florida Miami Herald Retrieved October 15 2016 Liptak Adam January 12 2016 Supreme Court Strikes Down Part of Florida Death Penalty The New York Times Retrieved February 3 2016 Alvarez Lizette February 2 2016 Supreme Court Ruling Has Florida Scrambling to Fix Death Penalty Law The New York Times Retrieved October 14 2016 Berman Mark March 7 2016 Florida death penalty officially revamped after the Supreme Court struck it down Washington Post Retrieved August 3 2016 Klas Mary Ellen Ovalle David October 14 2016 Court again tosses state death penalty ruling raises bar on capital punishment Miami Herald Retrieved October 15 2016 a b Farias Cristian October 25 2016 Florida s Death Penalty Law Is Ruled Unconstitutional Again Huffington Post Retrieved October 15 2016 De Jesus Roy Florida Governors and the Death Penalty Could DeSantis Pass Rick Scott www baynews9 com a b c d e Leary Alex Once eager to tout Trump friendship Rick Scott now plays it down Tampa Bay Times Retrieved August 27 2018 a b Verhovek John Rodriguez Lissette August 26 2018 In Florida Senate race Rick Scott treads carefully around Trump ABC News Retrieved August 27 2018 Caputo Marc Lima Cristiano October 7 2016 Scott Rubio rebuke Trump Politico Retrieved August 29 2018 Florida governor signs welfare drug screen measure CNN com June 1 2011 Archived from the original on September 16 2011 Retrieved September 28 2011 Rick Scott says welfare recipients are more likely to use illicit drugs PolitiFact com June 9 2011 Retrieved September 28 2011 Florida Few Drug Users Among Welfare Applicants The New York Times Associated Press September 28 2011 Florida drops bid to require drug tests for welfare applicants CBSnews com March 5 2015 Retrieved August 12 2015 Allen Greg January 6 2011 Gov Scott Ex CEO Aims To Run Fla Like A Business NPR Retrieved May 12 2023 Graves Allison April 10 2018 Create over 700 000 jobs Scott O Meter PolitiFact Retrieved June 21 2018 Ostrowski Jeff January 9 2018 Florida economy in Rick Scott era Success story or disappointment Palm Beach Post Retrieved June 21 2018 Ellenbogen Romy April 24 2018 Expand school options for parents Scott O Meter PolitiFact Retrieved June 21 2018 Alvarez Lizette December 9 2012 To Steer Students Toward Jobs Florida May Cut Tuition for Select Major The New York Times Retrieved June 7 2014 Postal Leslie April 14 2016 Gov Scott signs education bill that allows transfers to any school Orlando Sentinel Retrieved June 21 2018 Clark Kristen Gurney Kyra June 15 2017 Governor signs controversial schools bill into law Miami Herald Retrieved June 21 2018 Postal Leslie June 15 2017 Gov Scott signs controversial education bill at Orlando ceremony Orlando Sentinel Retrieved June 21 2018 House Bill 989 2017 The Florida Senate flsenate gov Retrieved July 20 2017 Kaplan Sarah July 1 2017 New Florida law lets any resident challenge what s taught in science classes Washington Post Retrieved July 20 2017 Caputo Marc May 27 2014 Rick Scott won t say if he thinks man made climate change is real significant Miami Herald Retrieved March 17 2015 Kruse Michael September 3 2014 Cut short by Gov Rick Scott climate scientist finishes his thought Tampa Bay Times Retrieved March 17 2015 Davenport Coral October 30 2014 Why Republicans Keep Telling Everyone They re Not Scientists The New York Times Retrieved March 20 2015 Goode Darren March 29 2014 Republicans on climate science Don t ask us Politico com Retrieved March 21 2015 Mazzei Patricia March 9 2015 Florida Gov Rick Scott won t say if global warming is a problem Miami Herald Retrieved March 20 2015 Clines Francis X March 12 2015 The Political Art of Not Being a Scientist New York Times Retrieved August 16 2015 Mazzei Patricia March 9 2015 Florida governor denies environmental agency banned term climate change Miami Herald Retrieved March 17 2015 Allen Greg March 11 2015 Florida Gov Scott Denies Banning Phrase Climate Change NPR Retrieved March 17 2015 Bosquet Steve March 20 2015 More climate change silence from Florida Gov Rick Scott s administration Bradenton Herald Retrieved August 16 2015 Rohrer Gray March 19 2015 Scott official avoids climate change in Senate hearing Orlando Sentinel Retrieved August 16 2015 a b Geng Lucia Did Rick Scott cut 700 million from water management Politifact Retrieved August 27 2018 Florida News Service of Gov Scott declares emergency over toxic algae outbreaks Tampa Bay Times Retrieved August 27 2018 Fineout Gary November 9 2017 Gov Rick Scott sued over wealth disclosure Orlando Sentinel Archived from the original on November 9 2017 Retrieved May 6 2018 Jim Saunders November 30 2018 Court Blocks Lawsuit Wanting Scott to Disclose More about His Assets Sunshine State News News Service of Florida Archived from the original on December 5 2018 Mower Lawrence February 20 2018 Scott hasn t declared Senate candidacy but his support of gun lobby draws attack ad Miami Herald Miami Florida Archived from the original on February 20 2018 Retrieved February 23 2018 NRA Endorses Rick Scott for Governor in Florida nrapvf org NRA PVF September 18 2014 Archived from the original on September 23 2014 Hammer Marion M June 23 2014 ALERT Governor Rick Scott Makes History Signing 5 Pro gun Bills NRA ILA National Rifle Association of America Institute for Legislative Action Archived from the original on February 15 2018 Retrieved February 23 2018 a b Sherman Amy February 22 2018 Florida Gov Rick Scott made it illegal for doctors to talk to patients about guns TV ad says Politifact Tampa Bay Times Archived from the original on February 23 2018 Retrieved February 23 2018 Bowden John June 9 2017 Florida governor signs strengthened stand your ground bill into law The Hill Archived from the original on June 13 2017 Retrieved June 9 2017 Mazzei Patricia February 23 2018 Defying N R A Florida Lawmakers Back Raising Age Limits on Assault Rifles The New York Times New York City Archived from the original on February 23 2018 Retrieved February 23 2018 Sweeney Dan March 7 2018 Florida House sends Stoneman Douglas gun and school bill to Gov Scott Sun Sentinel Archived from the original on March 7 2018 Retrieved March 8 2018 Sanchez Ray Yan Holly March 9 2018 Florida Gov Rick Scott signs gun bill CNN Archived from the original on March 9 2018 Retrieved March 10 2018 Schweers Jeffrey March 9 2018 NRA sues Florida over gun bill same day Gov Scott signed it into law Tallahassee Democrat Archived from the original on March 9 2018 Retrieved March 10 2018 Sherman Amy April 4 2014 Rick Scott wants to go back to denying coverage for pre existing conditions Charlie Crist says PolitiFact Retrieved June 14 2018 a b Leary Alex Pre existing conditions latest flashpoint in Nelson Scott battle Tampa Bay Times Retrieved June 14 2018 a b c Glorioso Alexandra Caputo Marc June 11 2018 Scott mum on Trump s attack on pre existing condition provision Politico Retrieved June 14 2018 a b Sexton Christine Gov Rick Scott won t talk about Florida s part in Obamacare lawsuit Orlando Weekly Retrieved June 14 2018 a b Greenberg Jon April 7 2015 Gov Rick Scott shifts again on Medicaid expansion PolitiFact Tampa Bay Times Retrieved April 13 2018 a b c Ryan Benjamin September 11 2019 Rick Scott had us on lockdown how Florida said no to 70m for HIV crisis The Guardian Retrieved September 15 2019 Henry Devin September 13 2017 Rick Scott s hurricane response boosts potential Senate run The Hill Retrieved June 20 2018 a b c d DeFede Jim June 12 2018 Exclusive Rick Scott s Rookie Mistake May Have Cost Taxpayers Millions CBS Miami Retrieved June 20 2018 a b c Bousquet Steve Rick Scott appears to support Curbelo s immigration plan but how would he vote Tampa Bay Times Retrieved August 29 2018 a b Alvarez Lizette May 5 2011 Florida Republicans Unite to Pass Immigration Bill The New York Times Retrieved August 29 2018 Gillin Joshua Drobnic Holan Angie Sherman Amy Rating Gov Rick Scott on his 2010 campaign promises PolitiFact Florida Retrieved August 29 2018 Rick Scott on Immigration www ontheissues org Retrieved January 30 2019 a b Fox Lauren June 9 2014 Florida Gov Rick Scott Signs In State Tuition Bill for Dreamers U S News amp World Report Retrieved November 8 2018 Fabian Jordan June 5 2013 License Bill Vetoed Despite Support ABC News Retrieved August 29 2018 Caputo Marc Glorioso Alexandra June 19 2018 Scott slams Trump family separation policy demands answers from HHS Politico Retrieved June 20 2018 Bousquet Steve Leary Alex June 19 2018 Florida Republicans split on detaining children Some stay with Trump others object Miami Herald Retrieved June 20 2018 Iannelli Jerry January 27 2019 Here s a List of Companies Making Money From Miami s Child Migrant Detention Camp Miami New Times Retrieved January 30 2019 Reedy Joe Lawyer Florida governor should end medical marijuana appeal Associated Press Retrieved June 14 2018 McAuliffe Danny June 13 2018 Rick Scott talks pot Donald Trump Florida Politics Retrieved June 14 2018 Koh Elizabeth John Morgan tells Gov Scott Drop appeal in smokeable medical marijuana case Tampa Bay Times Retrieved June 14 2018 Bousquet Steve Battle rages between Rick Scott John Morgan over smokable medical marijuana Tampa Bay Times Retrieved June 14 2018 a b c McGrory Kathleen Bedi Neil September 3 2020 Targeted Tampa Bay Times Retrieved September 17 2020 Mark I Pinsky November 3 2010 Florida Voters Pass Milestone Measures to End Gerrymandering Politics Daily Retrieved March 20 2015 Steve Bousquet January 25 2011 Scott moves to delay redistrict plan The Miami Herald Retrieved February 24 2016 Mary Ellen Klas February 3 2011 Gov Rick Scott sued over decision to halt federal review over redistricting standards St Petersburg Times Archived from the original on September 24 2015 Retrieved August 16 2015 Williams Timothy Florida s Governor Rejects High Speed Rail Line Fearing Cost to Taxpayers The New York Times February 16 2011 retrieved February 19 2011 Tracy Dan Schlueb Mark March 1 2011 Two lawmakers ask high court to force Scott to take high speed rail money Orlando Sentinel Retrieved February 24 2016 Kastenbaum Steve Florida high speed train project derailed Court rules for Scott cnn com March 4 2011 retrieved February 24 2016 Clark Lesley May 30 2011 Gov Rick Scott promises 77 million for Port of Miami project Tampabay com Archived from the original on March 9 2011 Retrieved June 7 2014 a b c d e f g Klas Mary Ellen August 16 2018 Rick Scott killed a high speed rail plan Then All Aboard rolled up and he bought it Miami Herald Retrieved August 27 2018 a b c d e f g Bousquet Steve April 18 2018 Rick Scott has made enemies over voting rights now it s an issue in his Senate race Miami Herald Retrieved April 19 2018 a b Bousquet Steve A day after judge blasts state counties act fast to hold early voting on campus Tampa Bay Times Retrieved July 25 2018 a b Bousquet Steve Judge Florida s early voting on campus ban shows stark pattern of discrimination Tampa Bay Times Retrieved July 25 2018 a b c d e Pickett Alex May 31 2018 In Florida Long Fight for Restored Vote Often Ends in Minutes Courthouse News Service Retrieved June 2 2018 a b Ramadan Lulu Florida felon voting rights Who got theirs back under Scott The Palm Beach Post Retrieved October 25 2018 Voting Rights Restoration Efforts in Florida Brennan Center for Justice brennancenter org Retrieved June 20 2018 Pathe Simone April 9 2018 Florida Gov Rick Scott Announces Senate Campaign Roll Call Retrieved April 13 2018 Mazzei Patricia April 9 2018 Rick Scott Senate Run Returns Florida to Battleground New York Times Retrieved April 13 2018 Florida Primary Election Results The New York Times August 28 2018 Retrieved August 30 2018 Fineout Gary Rick Scott wins GOP primary for Florida s U S Senate seat faces Bill Nelson Nov 6 TCPalm Retrieved November 8 2018 a b Powers Scott September 26 2018 Rick Scott s campaign ad rebuts Democrats on Medicare fraud scandal floridapolitics com Retrieved September 29 2018 Akin Katie August 16 2018 Nelson didn t pay payroll taxes He didn t have to Politifact Retrieved September 29 2018 Sherman Amy September 27 2018 Gov Rick Scott wrongly calls Sen Bill Nelson a socialist Politifact Retrieved September 29 2018 Livni Ephrat November 10 2018 Recount Florida has five days to tally more than 8 million ballots Quartz Retrieved June 7 2019 Woodall Bernie November 18 2018 Republican Scott secures Florida U S Senate seat after recount Reuters Retrieved November 18 2018 Taylor Jessica November 18 2018 Republican Rick Scott Wins Florida Senate Seat Over Incumbent Bill Nelson NPR org Retrieved June 7 2019 Company Tampa Publishing Rick Scott s involvement with super PAC shows blurred lines Tampa Bay Times Retrieved April 18 2021 New elections complaint for Rick Scott New Republican PAC Florida Politics Campaigns amp Elections Lobbying amp Government September 10 2018 Retrieved April 18 2021 Ethics group files complaint against pro Rick Scott PAC Florida Politics Campaigns amp Elections Lobbying amp Government July 26 2018 Retrieved April 18 2021 Dixon Matt October 17 2018 Super PAC backing Scott s Senate effort raises 7M Politico PRO Retrieved April 18 2021 RobertsJune 7 Ray Pm 2018 at 12 47 June 7 2018 Chicago billionaire Ken Griffin named finance chair for Rick Scott s super PAC Florida Politics Campaigns amp Elections Lobbying amp Government Retrieved April 18 2021 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint numeric names authors list link Organizations Disclosing Donations to New Republican PAC 2018 OpenSecrets www opensecrets org Retrieved April 18 2021 Brendan Farrington Gary Fineout January 8 2019 Republican DeSantis sworn in as Florida s new governor Associated Press Archived from the original on January 8 2019 Felicia Sonmez January 8 2019 Florida s Rick Scott sworn in as senator The Washington Post Rick Scott sworn in as Florida Senator WPTV January 8 2019 Powers Scott January 31 2019 Rick Scott Donald Trump should use executive power on border Retrieved February 20 2019 Powers Scott February 15 2019 Rick Scott applauds Donald Trump s decision to declare national emergency Democrats rail Retrieved February 20 2019 By Rick Scott is using a word to describe Venezuela that no one else is Is he right miamiherald Retrieved May 17 2019 Jacobson Louis Sherman Amy May 16 2019 The problem with calling Venezuela s crisis under Maduro a genocide Politifact Retrieved May 17 2019 Levin Jonathan May 17 2019 Florida Senator on Venezuela Time to Position U S Military Bloomberg Retrieved May 17 2019 Senate Democrats Defend Voting In Line with Donald Trump on NSA Surveillance Bill www theintercept com January 20 2018 Retrieved May 1 2021 U S Senate U S Senate Roll Call Votes 116th Congress 2nd Session www senate gov Retrieved May 1 2021 Daugherty Alex September 18 2020 Rick Scott wants a vote for Ruth Bader Ginsburg s replacement before Election Day Miami Herald Retrieved September 19 2020 U S Senate U S Senate Roll Call Votes 117th Congress 1st Session www senate gov Retrieved January 8 2021 U S Senate U S Senate Roll Call Votes 117th Congress 1st Session www senate gov Retrieved January 8 2021 Baitinger Anthony Man Brooke January 7 2021 Florida Sen Rick Scott votes to uphold objection to Pennsylvania results Marco Rubio rejects objection there and in Arizona sun sentinel com Retrieved January 12 2021 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link Bowman Bridget November 10 2020 Senate GOP picks Florida s Rick Scott as NRSC chairman Roll Call Retrieved November 10 2020 Cockburn September 12 2022 Lizard man loses national conservatives spectatorworld com London Press Holdings ISSN 0038 6952 OCLC 1766325 Archived from the original on September 12 2022 Fineout Gary March 16 2021 Doesn t make any sense DeSantis rejects Rick Scott s call to return stimulus money Politico PRO Retrieved March 17 2021 Which senators supported a Jan 6 Capitol riot commission Washington Post May 28 2021 Alfaro Mariana Scott Eugene March 17 2022 More than two dozen Senate Republicans demand Biden do more for Ukraine after voting against 13 6 billion for Ukraine The Washington Post Retrieved March 17 2022 Sen Rick Scott SCOTUS is Right to Protect Life Respect Federalism amp Reverse Roe U S Senator Rick Scott June 24 2022 Retrieved June 24 2022 Pengelly Martin August 18 2022 Rick Scott don t apply for IRS jobs because Republicans will defund them the Guardian Retrieved August 25 2022 Sen Rick Scott Pens Open Letter to Job Seekers Don t Work for Biden s IRS Army U S Senator Rick Scott August 16 2022 Retrieved August 25 2022 Kapur Sahil August 17 2022 Republicans escalate IRS rhetoric as senator warns Americans not to apply for new jobs NBC News Retrieved August 25 2022 Zhou Li November 16 2022 Why some Republican senators are revolting against Mitch McConnell Vox Retrieved January 12 2023 Quinn Melissa Turman Jack November 15 2022 Florida Sen Rick Scott challenges Mitch McConnell for Senate GOP leader CBS News Retrieved January 12 2023 Davis Susan Bustillo Ximena Schapitl Lexie Swartz Katherine November 16 2022 McConnell wins leadership race but GOP infighting continues NPR Retrieved January 12 2023 Everett Burgess November 16 2022 Nothing to negotiate McConnell crushes Scott s right flank rebellion Politico Retrieved January 12 2023 Folley Aris June 1 2023 Here are the senators who voted against the bill to raise the debt ceiling The Hill Retrieved June 17 2023 Rubio Reintroduces Bill to Make Daylight Saving Time Permanent U S Senator for Florida Marco Rubio Retrieved March 23 2023 Sens Rick Scott Tim Scott Reintroduce Bill to Protect Parental Rights Combat Indoctrination in Schools U S Senator Rick Scott February 6 2023 Retrieved March 23 2023 Sen Rick Scott Celebrates NDAA Passage Big Wins for Florida s Military Bases U S Senator Rick Scott December 15 2022 Retrieved March 23 2023 Sen Rick Scott s Bipartisan END FENTANYL Act to Help Border Patrol Stop Drug Smuggling Unanimously Passes in Senate U S Senator Rick Scott December 15 2022 Retrieved March 23 2023 Mueller Julia March 28 2023 Rick Scott calls for automatic death penalty for school shooters The Hill Retrieved March 29 2023 Cillizza Chris February 23 2022 Analysis 26 things Rick Scott s rescue plan for America would do CNN Retrieved August 7 2022 Morgan David February 27 2022 U S senator says Republicans only deserve to govern if they adopt his agenda Reuters Retrieved August 7 2022 Scott Rick February 22 2022 An 11 Point Plan to Rescue America Politico Retrieved August 7 2022 Samuels Brett April 18 2022 White House targets Rick Scott plan on Tax Day The Hill Retrieved August 7 2022 Benen Steve May 11 2022 Scott offers ugly response as Biden hits his plan like a pinata MSNBC Retrieved August 7 2022 Gancarski A G March 31 2022 Democrats continue assault on Rick Scott s Rescue America plan Florida Politics Retrieved August 7 2022 Lesniewski Niels May 12 2022 New senior focused ads from Democrats hit Scott s plans for Medicare Social Security Roll Call Retrieved August 7 2022 Weisman Jonathan March 31 2022 Income Taxes for All Rick Scott Has a Plan and That s a Problem The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved August 7 2022 Everett Burgess Levine Marianne March 1 2022 McConnell clashes with Rick Scott over Republican agenda POLITICO Retrieved August 7 2022 Davis D L March 18 2022 Ron Johnson has not endorsed plan to phase out of Social Security Medicare PolitiFact Retrieved August 7 2022 Davis D L June 15 2022 Democrats still exaggerating GOP backing of Scott s plan on Social Security Medicare taxes PolitiFact Retrieved August 7 2022 12 Cutting Taxes Rescue America June 8 2022 Retrieved August 7 2022 Maloney Emily L June 9 2022 Rick Scott revises plan for more people to pay income tax after bipartisan criticism Tampa Bay Times Retrieved August 7 2022 Contorno Steve Here are Rick Scott s committee assignments when he goes to Washington Tampa Bay Times Bousquet Steve July 2 2013 Rick Scott is worth 83 8M report shows Tampa Bay Times Retrieved October 23 2014 Documents reveal Gov Rick Scott net worth at least 132 7 million wesh com June 17 2014 Retrieved October 23 2014 Bousquet Steve July 1 2015 Rick Scott s net worth grows to 147 million Miami Herald Retrieved September 17 2020 Fineout Gary June 30 2017 Florida Gov Rick Scott Worth Nearly 150 Million Associated Press Schorsch Peter June 30 2018 Rick Scott s new worth tops 232 million Florida Politics Retrieved June 30 2018 Bousquet Steve Klas Mary Ellen Rick Scott reveals highest ever family assets of at least 255 million Tampa Bay Times Retrieved October 7 2021 Hall Madison Wang Angela December 14 2021 Meet the 25 wealthiest members of Congress businessinsider com Retrieved October 16 2022 Sack Kevin Mazzell Patricia October 17 2018 To Avoid Conflicts Rick Scott Created a Trust Blind in Name Only The New York Times Retrieved October 17 2018 a b Bousquet Steve Revealed Rick Scott s financial link to botched SunPass contract Tampa Bay Times Retrieved October 24 2018 Contorno Steve Rick Scott won t put his wealth in a blind trust anymore Tampa Bay Times Retrieved February 13 2019 a b c Bousquet Steve August 27 2018 Rick and Ann Scott s financial trail leads to Cayman Islands tax haven Miami Herald Retrieved August 29 2018 Bousquet Steve August 1 2018 Florida Gov Rick Scott s trust held investment linked to Putin Miami Herald Retrieved August 28 2018 a b Bousquet Steve August 7 2018 Rick Scott told Florida not to invest in companies linked to Venezuela but he did Tampa Bay Times Retrieved August 28 2018 Rick and Ann Scott s financial trail leads to Cayman Islands tax haven miamiherald Retrieved August 28 2018 Rick Scott biography Archived October 19 2011 at the Wayback Machine rickscottforflorida com accessed June 7 2014 Sen Rick Scott says Naples home was swatted while at dinner with his wife WPTV News Channel 5 West Palm December 29 2023 Retrieved December 30 2023 The 2010 Results Maps POLITICO Florida Department of State Election Results Archived from the original on October 3 2011 Governor Florida Election Watch Florida Division of Elections Retrieved September 3 2014 2018 Florida primary election results Florida Department of State Florida Election Watch US Senator floridaelectionwatch gov a b Health Plan Exec Honored by Nursing School Columbia University Record Columbia University October 20 1995 Retrieved April 5 2009 External links nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rick Scott U S Senate website Campaign website Rick Scott at Curlie Appearances on C SPAN Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress Financial information federal office at the Federal Election Commission Legislation sponsored at the Library of Congress Profile at Vote SmartParty political officesPreceded byCharlie Crist Republican nominee for Governor of Florida2010 2014 Succeeded byRon DeSantisPreceded byConnie Mack IV Republican nominee for U S Senator from Florida Class 1 2018 Most recentPreceded byTodd Young Chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee2021 2023 Succeeded bySteve DainesPolitical officesPreceded byCharlie Crist Governor of Florida2011 2019 Succeeded byRon DeSantisU S SenatePreceded byBill Nelson U S Senator Class 1 from Florida2019 present Served alongside Marco Rubio IncumbentU S order of precedence ceremonial Preceded byJosh Hawleyas United States Senator from Missouri Order of precedence of the United States as United States Senator from Floridasince January 3 2019 Succeeded byJacky Rosenas United States Senator from NevadaUnited States senators by seniority81st Succeeded byMark Kelly Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Rick Scott amp oldid 1196241441, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.