WASHINGTON — Florida Gov. Rick Scott told reporters Tuesday afternoon while touting a new tax plan that he plans to endorse a candidate before Florida’s March primary.
Scott was adamant that “jobs” would be the most important factor in choosing who will he endorse. He said, “I’m thinking about endorsing. I want the candidate that has a plan that..I personally feel comfortable will get jobs going. It’s the biggest problem in the country. I represent everybody in our state, but the truth is I want the people that are struggling the most to get a job.”
As for what he’s looking for in a jobs plan, Scott said, “It’s going to be taxes and regulation, those are the two biggest things. Government doesn’t create any jobs, it just creates a great environment.”
In early January, Gov. Scott wrote an op-ed in USA Today called “Donald Trump has America’s pulse.”
When asked about Trump, he said, “I think what Trump has got going for him is the fact he had 14 years on ‘The Apprentice,’ and people think he’s a successful business guy. And they want a business guy, they want someone who will help them get jobs.”
Questions arose from reporters about whether a trade policy such as the one Trump has proposed would be counterproductive to job growth. Scott dodged.
While he is undecided, he said, “I think anybody can still win if they come out with something that people believe that there going to get jobs going.”
Scott seems to disregard foreign policy experience as central in the race, “You can care about all this foreign policy stuff, there’s no money without a good economy.” Florida’s own [crscore]Marco Rubio[/crscore] and Jeb Bush are running strongly on their foreign policy bona fides.
Jobs have certainly been central to Scott’s time as Florida’s governor. Since taking office the unemployment rate has decreased from 11.2 percent to 5 percent and reemployment assistance claimants have decreased from 700,000 to 57,514. He said though that, “as well as we’re doing in Florida, and we have all these job openings, people are still are very focused on improving the economy, they remember how bad it was.”
When he ran for governor in 2010 he ran against then-Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum in the Republican primary, and he went on to heavily self-fund his campaign, spending $73 million of his own money. Scott was a healthcare executive before taking office and is completely self-made. He grew up in public housing not even knowing his own biological father.
Regarding the “establishment” shake-up that Trump is causing, Scott said: “The party does not get me elected, they don’t actually get people elected. Everybody says, ‘well the party oughta do that.’ Well the party is nobody, there’s no party that does any of this stuff. There might be a group of people that think they are, in a location, it’s probably easier to do in a city or a county than a state. I was clearly not the establishment candidate, and I won. I don’t think the party structure is that important…the party in Florida is Rick Scott.”
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