Jeb and Crist (when he was a Republican) were both personally popular and well-connected. Rick Scott never enjoyed personal popularity, and defeated Nelson only because Nelson was old, tired, ran a poor campaign, and whose personal popularity died with those folks who crossed party lines to vote for him in Brevard and Indian River Counties back in the day.
DeSantis is making all the right moves, and is proving to be exceptionally popular. I believe he may well win re-election with over 55% of the vote, and I believe he will cause serious challengers to opt out of the 2022 FL Governor's race. (Such a result would not be a reflection of where FL is at as much as personal approval of the candidates.
Concerning the 2018 senatorial race, Scott saw a surge in term of popularity after 2016 and it was clearly a major factor in the loss of Nelson
Yes, he did. There were major hurricanes that hit the state in 2016 and 2017, which gave Scott the opportunity to exhibit his crisis leadership skills, and he exhibited them well. Such opportunities caused Scott to be able to show himself as a compassionate and decisive leader, unifying people behind his leadership, and giving him, in the minds of even voters that don't like him, a redeeming quality.
Scott projected a calm, steady, but firm hand on the wheel during Florida's hurricanes, a time which gives Florida's Governor a lot of media face time. It put him on stronger footing versus Nelson, who ran a poor campaign, and appeared to be not just old, but tired as well (and the victim of some really bad plastic surgery). Supporters of Biden ought to take heed of Nelson's fate when considering "electability" as Nelson is the same age as Biden.
