There are three reasons why Florida should re-elect U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson.

He’s earned it.

Rick Scott hasn’t.

And this is no time to send another Republican to President Trump’s see-no-evil claque in Congress.

Nelson, 75, who had weak opposition for his second and third terms, is now in the fight of his life. That shouldn’t be, considering his solid, dependable support for the causes most vital to the people of this state: Protecting the air and water from pollution and near-shore oil drilling. Expanding health care and ensuring coverage for pre-existing conditions. Working often with his Republican colleague, Sen. Marco Rubio, for Florida’s common good. Nelson’s moderation perfectly reflects the spirit of his state.

Nelson has been a workhorse, not a show horse, while Scott has spent the last eight years reaping headlines on a near-daily basis. Look closely, though, and those headlines tell the story of a governor who wouldn’t deserve re-election. Nothing in his record suggests he would do better as a senator.

The angry citizens along Florida’s southwest coast, gagging over the stink of dead fish and marine mammals, have a point when they call him “Red Tide Rick.” He and his colleagues on the Florida Cabinet have been a disaster for the environment. Early on, they persuaded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to back off regulations that limited runoff from sewage, manure and fertilizer in Florida. The EPA let the state make its own rules, even as the state cut water management budgets and shed experienced scientists. We can see — and smell — how well that went.

Under Scott, state agencies dare not mention climate change, leaving South Florida to look out for its own fate. And if there weren’t enough damage to do here, Scott and Attorney General Pam Bondi joined litigation to block the cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay, nearly 800 miles from Tallahassee. The only thing worse for the environment than Scott in the Senate would be Scott as head of the EPA.

There are stark differences between Nelson and Scott on access to health care — an issue upon which the lives of Floridians literally depend. Nelson voted for and has resolutely supported President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, which guarantees coverage to people with pre-existing conditions — that’s most of us — and expanded Medicaid to millions of Americans who earn a little too much to qualify for Obamacare.

There are nearly 400,000 Floridians in that coverage gap, almost half of them in working families. Scott has consistently opposed Obamacare and rejected the Medicaid expansion, even when the state Senate voted for it. There was a moment when he changed his mind — though he did nothing about it — but then he changed his mind again. So we are paying for expanded Medicaid in 33 other states without any benefit to ourselves.

Nelson backed President Obama’s economic stimulus, which helped put a quick end to the 2008 recession, but led to his party losing control of Congress. Reaping the benefit of Obama’s leadership, Scott touts Florida’s healthy job growth. There is a downside: Too many are service jobs and too few are high-paying. One of his first acts as governor was to throw away good jobs by rejecting a stimulus-funded, ready-to-go high speed rail line between Orlando and Tampa.

Meanwhile, Scott and his wife have invested in companies indirectly related to a passenger-rail project he does support. Scott’s “blind” trust — not so blind, it seems, to Mrs. Scott — would have concealed that bit of scandal, but he had to reveal it to run for federal office.

No other governor has been so secretive about his finances or about his conduct in office, even withholding his daily schedules and campaign itineraries. No other governor has been sued so often to disgorge public records.

No other governor has been so hostile to the estimated 1.5 million Floridians who have paid their debts to society and deserve to have their voting rights restored. Meanwhile, the governor has overseen endless tragic failures in his Departments of Corrections and Children and Families under a parade of appointees. He pushed prison privatization so aggressively that the Legislature balked.

Scott took pride in his hurricane crisis management, but never answered the frantic calls to his cellphone from the Hollywood Hills nursing home where 12 elderly patients died of heat. Three days after the hurricane, he awarded oversized debris-pickup contracts to two companies, causing costs elsewhere to balloon. This year, he put his former travel aide in charge of the state’s emergency management agency.

Though Scott talks a good game about the public schools, he’s been too partial to charter schools, half of which are run by for-profit corporations. Meanwhile, because of insufficient state support, some 20 counties are now asking their voters to raise local taxes to make schools safe and give teachers pay raises. Gains for the universities have come at the expense of the state colleges, upon which Florida relies for workforce development.

Before the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Scott signed everything demanded of him by the National Rifle Association, including an infamous stand-your-ground revision that is virtually a license to kill. To his credit, post-Parkland, he finally broke with the gun lobby to make 21 the minimum age for buying rifles. But it’s Nelson who has the more sensible record, including support for a ban on the sale of military-style assault rifles.