Rick Scott, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell near inevitable November battle

The Primaries on both sides of Florida’s U.S. Senate race are leaving little room for doubt, even as early voting is underway.

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott and his likely Democratic opponent, former U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, have been in General Election mode for months now. And the Aug. 20 Primary is expected to confirm a matchup that has been anticipated for the entire 2024 cycle.

Both candidates are north of $4.3 million on hand and up against tomato can competition.

Scott faces long shots John Columbus, who has just over $22,000 on hand, and Keith Gross, who has under $9,000 to spend.

Likewise, Mucarsel-Powell has been essentially the presumptive nominee since she entered the race, and she also has nominal opposition.

Though Stanley Campbell ended Q2 with nearly $400,000 on hand, his campaign is in disarray, according to his departed Campaign Manager.

“The lack of transparency, and the lack of a fundamental, consistent and hierarchical structure and defined roles for staff were major hindrances for me, for them, for our potential and for our morale,” read a campaign memo from Millie Raphael.

The General Election campaign likely will take place along already familiar battle lines, with the Democrat attempting to take advantage of a backlash against reproductive rights restrictions in Florida since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision of 2022.

Among the issues that have cropped up: in vitro fertilization, which Scott says he backs and which Mucarsel-Powell contends he doesn’t.

At the end of July, the Naples Republican filed the Increasing Value for Families with HSAs Act. That bill, per Scott, is designed to “help individuals and families better plan and pay for medical expenses, like in vitro fertilization (IVF), by decoupling health savings accounts from high-deductible health plans, and doubling the current contribution limits on HSAs from $4,300 to $8,600 for individuals and $8,550 to $17,100 for families.”

The Democratic opposition frames it somewhat differently, saying Scott is spending “millions of dollars to lie to Florida voters about his anti-IVF record and cover up his recent vote against bipartisan legislation to protect access to IVF treatment.”

“How very fitting that the thief who defrauded Medicare by $1.7 billion, refused to expand Medicaid, and has repeatedly called to eliminate the Affordable Care Act is suddenly pretending to care about Floridians’ access to IVF and affordable health care,” Mucarsel-Powell said.

The high cost of living has been another point of contention between the two.

“Floridians are tired of extremism, they are tired of the division, the chaos, and they are facing an affordability crisis. We have the highest level of inflation here in the state of Florida than in any other place in the country because of Rick Scott’s failed policies that started when he was Governor,” claimed Debbie Mucarsel-Powell during a recent appearance on The Sasha View.

Scott, meanwhile, blames the Democrat and the current President for money not going as far as it should, with a spokesman saying “nearly 80 percent of Americans are saying fast food has become a luxury. The Democrats are out-of-touch, and it’s hurting average Americans. Floridians understand the best way to get the economy back working is to fire Joe Biden and Mucarsel-Powell for good in November.”

Polling of a potential race between Mucarsel-Powell and Scott has been all over the place.

In a survey released by Florida Atlantic University, she’s just 2 points back among likely voters, 45% to 43%.

That June poll presented a marked contrast to a previous poll by the same outfit that showed a 16-point race, and with a Florida Chamber of Commerce poll that showed a 15-point gap earlier this Summer.