Charlie Kirk endorses Rick Scott for Senate GOP leader

Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk endorsed Senator Rick Scott for Senate GOP Leader on Thursday. The current leader of the party in the chamber is Mitch McConnell, who announced in February that he will step down from the post in November. 

"Sen. Rick Scott is a good man. He turned around many businesses. He turned around Florida as governor. He will turn around the US Senate, too," Kirk wrote. "Senator Rick Scott has my complete and total endorsement to become the next Senate GOP leader." 

Speaking with Kirk on his show Thursday, Scott said, "we need to have a sea change. I’m a turnaround guy. That’s what I did in business. I bought failing businesses; I fixed them up. I became governor back in January 2011 in Florida. Florida was in financial distress at the time. I turned the state around with a lot of other help, not just me, but we did it together." 

"We need to do the same things at the federal level. President Trump’s gonna win. He needs a partner in the Senate that says we need a sea change. We need to have conservative policies that are actually going to get implemented rather than be blocked by people that don’t want to do it," he added. 

Scott said that under his leadership he would pass term limits for the leader because "nobody should have power that long," he would "make sure that we don’t have continuing resolutions or omnibuses" and reintroduce an appropriations process to achieve that, and said "I want bills not to be decided by Schumer and McConnell, but be decided by committees and with a robust amendment." 

Kirk noted that "under the current regime, Senator McConnell seems to allocate money more towards races where he thinks he can get votes rather than majorities," and asked Scott "how would you engage in these sorts of races?" 

Scott said "What I personally believe is we all let Republican primaries happen so Washington, DC is not picking our candidates, because historically what they wanted, they wanted the candidates that will just go along with leadership. I don't think that's the right thing to do," adding that as money is raised, "we should be helping all Republicans win." 

Scott responded to the endorsement on X Thursday evening, stating that Kirk "is a true patriot and fighter for conservative values. I’m glad to have his endorsement for Senate Republican leader.  

"We need a sea change in DC. I’m a turn-around guy. I built businesses & turned Florida around as governor. We WILL make Washington work for you."