TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — After Republican front-runner Donald Trump won the Florida presidential primary Tuesday, Gov. Rick Scott endorsed the candidate and encouraged others in the GOP to do the same.
“I believe it is now time for Republicans to accept and respect the will of the voters and coalesce behind Donald Trump,” Scott wrote on his Facebook page.
Coming together behind a single candidate is important if the party wants to see a Republican win the White House in the general election later this year, Scott argued.
For him, that candidate was Trump.
“If we spend another four months tearing each other apart, we will damage our ability to win in November,” he wrote.
Like Trump, Scott is a wealthy businessman who spent millions of his fortune in his first run for office. He was elected governor in 2010.
Scott had refused to make an endorsement before Florida's primary but had dropped hints at a possible Trump endorsement. That drew the ire of other Republicans in the state who had generally coalesced around U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio.
Trump easily beat Florida Sen. Marco Rubio on Tuesday, taking all 99 Florida Republican delegates and forcing Rubio out of the race.
Cox Media Group
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