Ryan Nicol
Republican Gov. Rick Scott, running for the U.S. Senate against Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson, is out with a new ad replete with news coverage clips critical of Nelson’s efforts during the campaign.
The ad’s title, “Asleep at the Wheel,” comes from a clip of Republican pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson using that term to describe Nelson’s re-election campaign.
That clip is played twice in the ad, along with analysis from POLITICO’s Marc Caputo, MSNBC’s Katy Tur, and other media figures regarding Nelson’s at-time lagging campaign.
A request for comment from the Nelson team regarding Scott’s new ad is pending.
Multiple reports have chronicled Democrats’ worries that Nelson could lose the seat to Gov. Scott, even in the event of a solid year for Democrats in the midterms overall.
However, there have been some recent signs of good news for the incumbent Nelson. A recent Quinnipiac poll showed him leading Scott by a whopping seven points. While that poll is an outlier, an NBC News/Marist survey released the same day showed Nelson up by three points.
Nelson now leads in an analysis of the race by both RealClearPolitics and FiveThirtyEight, though his margin remains slim. So while Scott continues to push the narrative that Nelson is asleep at the wheel, the incumbent may be in the process of shifting his campaign into a higher gear.
