Run, Rick, run — for president | Steve Bousquet

The news was disappointing, but not surprising.

Rick Scott, Florida’s junior senator, says he won’t run for president in 2024. He knocked down a New York Times story that quoted sources as saying Scott was weighing a White House run.

Too bad.

Even Rick Scott’s presence would liven up this wretched Republican field of White House hopefuls. Without him, we’re down to just three Florida men chasing the GOP nomination: Donald Trump, busy fending off two indictments and multiple investigations; Ron DeSantis, who’s cratering in the latest polls; and the eminently unfamiliar Francis X. Suarez, the mayor of Miami.

Some choices, huh?

For Scott, it must be galling to watch DeSantis, his successor in the Governor’s Mansion, running around the country raising millions of dollars, rallying big crowds and selling “Don’t Fauci My Florida” beer koozies by the truckload.

If Scott doesn’t run, he’s making a big mistake, because this opportunity is not likely to come his way again.

Scott will turn 71 in December. That’s relatively young compared to Trump or President Joe Biden, but he’ll be 75 by the time the next presidential cycle rolls around in 2028.

If Scott doesn’t run for president, he will soon face intense pressure to endorse Trump or DeSantis — and we know how that will turn out.

Scott and DeSantis had a very tense and awkward transition a few years ago. Scott scheduled a big shindig at the mansion the night before the 2019 inauguration ceremony, just as DeSantis was trying to move in with his young family.

Scott couldn’t be bothered to stick around for the new governor’s inaugural address. DeSantis then rescinded dozens of late-term political appointments Scott made as he walked out the door in Tallahassee. Scott also has publicly opposed DeSantis on a six-week abortion ban and a permitless carry gun law, so DeSantis has zero shot at getting Scott’s endorsement.

Then there’s Scott’s bizarre “travel warning” to socialists and communists, warning them to avoid moving to Florida or vacationing here. (Come on, even socialists like Space Mountain. Since when are their tourist dollars no good?)

The 35-second Twitter video was meant to be a sarcastic response to similar warnings from the NAACP, LGBTQ community and others, but the execution was flawed. Many mocked it and it surely didn’t please DeSantis, either.

The evidence is overwhelming that these two can’t stand each other. So a battle between Scott and DeSantis would be fun to watch.

On the other hand, a Scott presidential candidacy would increase the likelihood that Trump would be the nominee, because it would further split the anti-Trump vote. But because the alternative is six more years of Scott in the Senate, it’s still a better option.

Scott should run for president because he hasn’t done much as a senator except annoy people. With him in charge of the Republican Senate campaign strategy in 2022, a lot of money was wasted and the GOP lost winnable seats in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania.

He deeply antagonized Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who was forced to denounce Scott’s plan to endanger the future of Medicare and Social Security and to raise taxes on many Americans, while billionaires and big corporations legally evade taxes.

With a platform that’s sure to antagonize many voters in Florida, the state with the largest elderly population, Scott should be in deep trouble seeking re-election. But Democrats so far don’t have anyone credible to take him on, though the name of Grant Hill has been dropped tantalizingly.

Hill, a former Orlando Magic star and longtime Central Florida resident, enjoys a high profile as an NBA analyst. More importantly, Hill has the personal wealth to neutralize Scott’s many millions that have been crucial to all three of his narrow statewide victories.

Hill has no political pedigree, but he has no baggage, either, and Scott has plenty of the latter, from his former hospital company’s $1.7 billion Medicare fraud fine, a record at the time, to his early decision as governor to turn away billions of federal dollars for a high-speed rail system.

Scott, by the way, promised in 2018 that he would only serve two terms in Washington as a way of showing his support for term limits for Congress.

At least Scott deserves credit for keeping a promise to Floridians. He said he was going to Washington to shake things up, not to make friends. He was true to his word.

Not five years later, a perfectly good Senate seat is going to waste, and Scott stands alone on a political island of his own making. So run, Rick, run for president.

Steve Bousquet is Opinion Editor of the Sun Sentinel and a columnist in Tallahassee and Fort Lauderdale. Contact him at sbousquet@sunsentinel.com or (850) 567-2240 and follow him on Twitter @stevebousquet.