Morgan touts Grant Hill as Scott challenger
Attorney says the former NBA star would be a great candidate for Florida Democrats
Orlando attorney John Morgan says Grant Hill would be a great candidate for Florida Democrats, but he doesn’t think the former NBA star is ready to take on Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Scott just yet.
NBC News reported Tuesday that Democratic operatives and donors have been reaching out to both Hill and former Miami Heat player Dwyane Wade as possible candidates for the 2024 race against Scott.
Hill, 50, a longtime Central Florida resident, was on the Orlando Magic roster from 2000 to 2007, one of four stops in his 19-year Hall of Fame career, which ended in 2013. Since then, he’s worked as a basketball analyst and is a co-owner of the Atlanta Hawks.
“A beloved celebrity makes a much better candidate than some political hack, especially when as smart and charismatic as Grant,” Morgan told the Orlando Sentinel on Tuesday. “And he transcends politics.”
But, he added, “I have talked to him several times about it, and I don’t think he is ready now.”
Hill could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Scott is coming off a tough year that included a widely disparaged tax plan, the GOP losing ground in the Senate under his leadership and a doomed Senate leadership bid.
But Scott remains a favorite for reelection next year as someone willing to again spend his own millions to win in a state that has gotten increasingly more Republican since his narrow victories for governor and Senate.
Morgan, a longtime Democratic megadonor, registered as an independent amid differences with the state party in 2018 but was an early supporter of President Joe Biden in 2020.
Morgan said Wade, 41, who won three championships with the Miami Heat, was still a better potential candidate than any elected Democrat. But he said Wade was not as compelling a choice as Hill, whom he compared to football’s Peyton Manning and baseball’s Derek Jeter in terms of likability.
Wade recently announced that he and his family had moved
from Florida to California in part because of how Florida's recent transgender bans and LGBTQ policies could affect their 15-yearold transgender daughter.
“But the last couple of years, the laws, the politics, you know, has really become this big conversation, this unsafe conversation,” Wade told Variety. “And it's unsafe for my daughter, it's unsafe for the young kids and the youth and adults, the elders in the trans community.”
Despite Scott's advantages, Morgan said Scott was the most vulnerable Republican up for reelection because of his controversial plan to have everyone pay some federal taxes and his support for strict abortion legislation.
Aubrey Jewett, a professor of political science at the University of Central Florida, said non-traditional candidates have become a trend, with former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville being elected to the U.S. Senate and former Heisman winner Herschel Walker's unsuccessful bid for a Senate seat last year.
“Florida Democrats are struggling to figure out who the best person would be to run,” Jewett said. “…They are just trying to figure out some way to get competitive and to actually win a race because they just have not been successful. So Some Democrats are thinking it might be time to think outside the box.”
Former U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy of Winter Park has long been mentioned as a possible 2024 Senate candidate but she told NBC News that any candidate would need to know they had national party backing. “It would be foolish for anybody to be the sacrificial lamb,” she said.
Former U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, D-Miami, has also been floated as a possibility.
Chris Hartline, a former spokesman for Scott and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, cited his statement on Twitter that Hill and Wade being considered showed that Florida Democrats think Murphy and Mucarsel-Powell are “jokes.”
“Between Rick Scott, [U.S. Sen.] Marco Rubio, and [Gov.] Ron DeSantis, Florida Republicans have systematically dismantled the Democrats' bench in Florida,” Hartline tweeted.