/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-wordpress-client-uploads/tbt/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/14212413/IMG_0108.jpg "Gov. Rick Scott addresses the Pinellas County Republican Party's Lincoln Day Dinner on Saturday, April 14.")
What a difference a year makes.
In 2017, Rick Scott gave a fiery speech at the National Rifle Association Leadership Forum in which he appeared to lay the foundation for a 2018 U.S. Senate run.
"We need a larger majority in the U.S. Senate. We need a majority that has the intellectual capacity to comprehend these three words in the Constitution: 'shall not infringe,'" Scott said then, emphasizing each word of that last phrase.
A year later, Scott's Senate campaign is in full swing. And it's time for the 2018 NRA Annual Meetings in Dallas.
The Florida governor won't be there, Scott spokeswoman Lauren Schenone told the Times. She didn't elaborate.
It's no secret that Scott and the NRA have grown more distant since that 2017 speech. The NRA appeared to remove Scott's picture from its website the same day the governor unveiled a post-Parkland legislative package that included modest gun restrictions.
The gun group is currently suing Scott's administration over the post-Parkland gun bill the governor signed into law in March.
Read more: Here's what's in Scott's gun bill.
And Florida NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer wrote a scathing op-ed in April directed at lawmakers who supported that bill.
The event Scott's missing will feature an array of national conservatives, including President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas and NRA Spokeswoman Dana Loesch. The Trump-supporting social media personalities Diamond & Silk will even address the crowd.
Watch Scott's entire 2017 speech here. And dare to dream of a simpler time.
Times Tallahassee bureau chief Steve Bousquet contributed reporting.
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