By Devin Dubon

Although Rick Scott has only recently announced his official run for Senate, speculation has been prevalent for years. In preparation for this, Scott has been trying to distance himself from President Trump and the hard Republican values and platform that he was elected on.

Now, not only do the democrats dislike him on account that he has run this state terribly, but he has also drawn the ire of his hard right voters.

For a while now, Scott has not been touting the presidential support that he had received from Trump many times. In fact, Scott refused to consider Trump as an ally for him in the future.

This bucks the tradition of virtually every candidate Trump has supported since the election. However, perhaps Scott is being smart, considering Trump-backed candidates have not exactly been doing well in the elections. Nonetheless, this distancing from Trump is sure to dissuade the hard-line Republican voters he has depended on for every election he’s ran in.

It’s not like Scott was a popular governor anyway. Of course, all the democrats disliked him due to his numerous policy positions, such as his denial of global warming, support for the death penalty, and his A+ grade from the NRA.

He drew anger from both sides of the isle when he used over a million dollars in taxpayer money to settle lawsuits filed against him and his administration for violating Florida’s open-records and open-meeting laws – the first time in history a sitting governor has used taxpayer money to settle lawsuits caused by his own secretive misbehavior.

Both of his gubernatorial elections were won with less than 50% of the vote and he has consistently appeared on lists of America’s least popular governors.

His unlikelihood to win this election is not just because of his many, many flaws either, but because of who he’s running against.

Bill Nelson has been the incumbent senator since 2001, easily winning every election. In fact, he has won every single election he’s participated in, apart from the 1990 gubernatorial election. He is a seasoned career politician and is currently leading in early polls. Although this is his first major competition since he has become a senator, his re-election would be to no surprise.

Riding on a new blue wave, against a strong opponent, and as an unpopular candidate, Scott has certainly got a lot to face come November. He is quickly becoming the last bastion of hope for the rapidly deteriorating Republican party for the midterms, and the election will be one closely watched.