Online influencers who boosted Ron DeSantis for President don’t want Rick Scott as Senate Leader

Many of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ most prominent social media supporters are slamming U.S. Sen. Rick Scott’s bid for Senate Majority Leader.

From media professionals like radio host Dana Loesch to online influencers like “Max Nordau,” the overlap between anti-Scott voices and DeSantis boosters seems readily evident to close watchers of Florida politics. Many Scott critics say supporters of President-elect Donald Trump are too eagerly rallying behind Scott as a choice to lead the Senate.

“I’m not resolutely against Rick Scott, but I’m familiar with his record of red flag laws, in-state tuition for illegal aliens, DACA, and botching the 2022 midterms,” the Max Nordau account posted on X. “I want President Trump to implement the agenda he ran on. Would a Senator Majority Leader Scott do it?”

Loesch, a former spokesperson for the National Rifle Association (NRA), criticized all three major contenders for Republican Majority Leader: Scott and U.S. Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and John Thune of South Dakota.

But she particularly criticized assertions that Scott, who signed a red flag law as Florida Governor that prompted a lawsuit by the NRA, would be a champion of conservative values.

“Rick Scott is a big government moderate who backed (Barack) Obama’s amnesty, signed due process-destroying red flag legislation into lawn Florida, and indicated that Cornyn’s red flag bill didn’t go far enough, thus his previous hesitancy to publicly endorse it,” Loesch wrote in her Chapter and Verse Substack. “He recently started cozying up to Trump as a hedge of protection because he knows he’s exactly the sort of squishy Republican that got us into the mess from the beginning.”

Loesch was also among the highest-profile DeSantis 2024 supporters, even appearing on the Twitter Spaces launch of DeSantis’ presidential campaign.

Among the most notable aspects of DeSantis’ run for President was a focus on the “always online” conservatives. He had a mass of influencers boosting him in particular on Twitter, now X.

But that platform also appears to be where so many of Trump’s most ardent supporters from the online Right are rallying support for Scott. From X owner Elon Musk to online provocateur (and former Florida congressional candidate) Laura Loomer, many of the most-followed MAGA accounts are pushing for Florida’s junior Senator to lead the Senate. Scott has even issued a press release listing online personalities backing his leadership bid.

But Nordau, the online handle of one of the most unapologetic DeSantis supporters during the campaign, is openly questioning why so many Trump accounts want Scott for Majority Leader. Notably, Nordau has advocated for DeSantis for years, to the point that many, including Loomer, questioned if the username was a puppet account for one of DeSantis’ communications staffers.

Additionally, personal friction between DeSantis and Scott, DeSantis’ predecessor in the Governor’s mansion, has been well documented.

But Nordau suggested the Scott support has been especially irritating after so many MAGA accounts questioned DeSantis’ conservatism during the Presidential Primary.

“The ‘Scott is better than DeSantis’ stuff doesn’t bother us out of personal loyalty,” Nordau said in a direct message to Florida Politics. “It bothers us because they have actual records that nobody bothers to look at.”

He’s not alone in suggesting that many Trump supporters mistake Scott’s loyalty to the President-elect as devotion to conservatism.

“Long Monkeypox,” an account that backed DeSantis for President and criticized Trump through the General Election, said Scott wasn’t a reasonable choice to lead Republicans in the Senate. Online, the X user posted that doctors in Florida can’t stand Scott. The account also questioned Scott’s political acumen, noting Senate Republicans suffered net losses when Scott ran the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2022, and suggested that Scott will be “played” by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.

“Scott botched the 2022 midterms. Supports red flag laws and will never be able to get 60 votes required to get anything passed in the senate,” the conservative account posted.

What’s most striking about the conservatives criticizing Scott now is how many of them supported DeSantis for President. Accounts like “Florida Dad,” “The Unusual Suspect” and “Reeseonable” have criticized Scott’s record as insufficiently conservative, and all strongly backed DeSantis as a better choice than Trump to serve as the 2024 Republican nominee.

“DeSantis and Trump supporters are ideologically aligned. The only difference is who we view as capable in implementing our positions,” The Unusual Suspect account wrote in a direct message to Florida Politics.

“So when we see MAGA cheering on this guy we call ‘Red Flag Rick,’ who supports a national red flag law, and amnesty, who was also upset that Biden didn’t give (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky enough help, we are baffled. We are upset that it seems his only redeeming quality is that he’s managed to kiss Trump’s rear end enough times to gain MAGA’s favor.”