Rick Scott says AOC and Mamdani lead Democrats, not Schumer or Jeffries

DALLAS — A top Senate Republican warned that the real leaders of the Democratic Party aren’t the top two Democrats in Congress.

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., weren’t the ones calling the shots for Democrats — it’s the far-left progressives, both inside and out of Congress, that are leading the way.

“Let’s be clear, the leader of the Democrat Party is not Schumer, it’s not Jeffries,” Scott said. “It’s Hasan Piker, it is AOC and [Zohran] Mamdani.”

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Republicans are congregating in Dallas, Texas, to pitch why they should maintain power in Congress and energize their base during a midterm cycle in which Democrats are fighting to retake control of both chambers.

Scott, who once led the Senate GOP’s campaign arm known as the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), argued that Schumer and Senate Democrats could “salivate all they want, but their message is horrible.”

That message is driven by the likes of streamer Hasan Piker, who has come under fire from both Republicans and Democrats, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

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“They’re going to say, ‘gosh, we want men to play in women’s sports, to destroy women’s sport,’” Scott said. “They can talk about socialism, how they want to kill all the capitalists.”

“I tell people, you go vote for a Democrat, which is now a socialist, right? Then you better buy a bunch of guns,” he continued. “Because you can vote socialism in, ask the people in Venezuela, but guess what? You can’t get rid of it without guns.”

Still, Republicans are facing political headwinds as November creeps closer, with the Iran war still raging, prices at the gas pump and checkout line still high, and a fresh trade war with Canada putting GOP incumbents and candidates in a bind.

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Senator Rick Scott, a Republican from Florida, in the Senate Subway during a vote at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, March 14, 2025. The Senate moved forward with a Republican spending plan in a crucial vote that effectively swept away the threat of a US government shutdown while exacerbating a furious struggle within the Democratic party over how to confront Donald Trump’s audacious expansion of presidential power. Photographer: Allison Robbert/Bloomberg via Getty Images (Allison Robbert/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

And midterm elections are more often than not a referendum against the party in power. Scott, however, believed that Republicans were going to “actually have a good cycle,” and maintain control of the Senate.

“The reason is we have a better message and we have great candidates,” Scott said. “If you look at our Senate candidates, I mean, how would you like to be out and defend [Abdul] El-Sayed’s record of being antisemitic and hating this country.”

Much of the purpose of the convention, Scott acknowledged, was to remind voters that while his name isn’t explicitly on the ballot, the midterm elections were all about President Donald Trump.

Trump is set to speak on Wednesday night as the NFL starts again, and as Republicans formulate their final message to their base. And that message is that if Democrats win out, Trump’s agenda will stall completely.

“There’s no question the Trump agenda is on the ballot,” Scott said. “If you want the Trump agenda accomplished, we have to control the House, we have to control the Senate.”

“And if the Democrats control the House, they’re gonna impeach him for combing his hair the wrong way,” he continued. “So we’ve gotta control the House and we gotta control the Senate.”