Republican Rick Scott wins Florida US Senate seat after manual recount
- Scott wins senate seat in recount of November 6 election by just 10,033 votes
Florida’s outgoing governor, Republican Rick Scott, was declared the winner of the state’s hard-fought US Senate race on Sunday, following a manual recount of ballots in the tight contest against three-term Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson.
In the recount of the November 6 election, Scott won by 10,033 votes out of 8.19 million cast statewide, Florida elections officials said on Sunday. Scott took 50.05 per cent, compared with 49.93 per cent for Nelson, the officials added.
Nelson, first elected to the Senate in 2000, became the latest incumbent Democratic senator toppled in the midterm congressional election in which President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans expanded their majority in the Senate but lost control of the House of Representatives.
Other incumbent Democratic senators defeated in the election include Joe Donnelly in Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota and Claire McCaskill in Missouri.
Scenes of thousands of people across the state reviewing ballots during the recount process had brought back memories of Florida’s 2000 presidential recount, which ended only after the US Supreme Court stepped in, effectively handing the presidency to Republican George W. Bush.
