(The Center Square) — In defiance of polling that showed a tight race, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., easily won a second term with a 1.38 million vote margin over former U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell on Tuesday night.
According to preliminary results from the Florida secretary of state’s office. Scott won with 55.73% of the 10.54 million ballots cast. Mucarsel-Powell got 42.65% of the vote.
Scott, who was a former Florida governor, barely beat then-incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., with 50.1% of the vote in 2018 or slightly less than 4.1 million votes.
That mirrors President Donald Trump’s big victory in preliminary results, as Trump took 56.25% of the 10.75 million ballots cast, far outperforming his tallies in both 2016 (4.62 million votes or 49%) and 2020 (nearly 5.7 million votes for 51.22%).
Two polls released in the last weeks before the election showed a 4-point lead for Scott and another from the University of North Florida showed him with an even-slimmer 3% lead.
Scott took big victories in Miami-Dade (580,851 to 472,081 for Mucarsel-Powell), Brevard (202,974 to 134,613), Lee (254,954 to 125,152), Hillsborough (329,923 to 309,784), Pinellas (258,628 to 238,913) and Polk (201,468 to 135,253) counties.
He also overperformed in some deep-blue counties such as Palm Beach County, which he lost by only 10,614 votes.
In a post on X, Scott celebrated his victory to another six-year term.
“THANK YOU, FLORIDA!” Scott said. “I’m honored to serve as your Senator for another 6 years! Tomorrow, we begin the fight to Make Washington WORK Again!”
