After months of speculation, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., today announced at his hometown alma mater, Charleston Southern University, that he is running for president of the United States. He is set to head directly to Iowa and New Hampshire, where millions of dollars worth of advertising have already been secured.
Scott focused his announcement on his own life story, rather than on politics and budgets.
“We live in the land where it is possible for a kid raised in poverty by a single mother in a small apartment to one day serve in the people’s House and maybe even the White House,” he said today in prepared remarks. “This is the greatest country on God’s green Earth.”
Scott is the second South Carolina Republican running for president in 2024. Former Gov. Nikki Haley, who appointed Scott to the Senate when GOP U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint stepped down in mid-term in 2013, announced her presidential campaign in February at the Charleston Visitors Center bus shed.
Scott, 57, still has about $22 million left over from his Senate re-elect last year and millions more via Super PAC, giving his campaign an impressive war chest.
But despite the announcement of an exploratory committee last month, he’s still hovering just under 2% in the RealClearPolitics national polling average. And he has one of the smaller national profiles among top Republican candidates at the moment, competing for the Republican Party nomination with the likes of former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Haley.
Despite past claims that he was a very similar candidate to Trump, the senator may be trying to distance himself from the MAGA agenda, even being called Trump’s “exact opposite” by one Republican pollster.
Some Democratic groups are not buying it.
“Tim Scott wants to govern from the ‘far, conservative right’ as a proud member of the Tea Party, and his extreme record proves it,” Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison said in a statement today. “Even before he refused to name a policy difference with Trump, Scott was a fierce advocate of the MAGA agenda — supporting national abortion bans and championing plans to end Medicare and Social Security as we know them. As an ‘architect’ of Trump’s tax law, Scott gifted corporations billions and has been a longtime champion of rolling back regulations on big banks.
“There’s no question that special interests are celebrating as Tim Scott throws his hat into the 2024 race for the MAGA base.”
Scott took the opportunity on stage to make opening arguments against the Biden administration and national Democrats, calling the current president “weak.”
“Under Joe Biden, we have become a nation in retreat,” Scott said. “Retreating from our heritage and our history. Retreating from personal responsibility and hard work. Retreating from strength and security. Even retreating from religious liberty and the worship of God himself.”
An underdog story
Scott made his career in politics, sitting in public office since his run for Charleston County Council in 1995. Being a Black man from the Deep South set him apart in the Republican Party, which gave him some spotlight.
He is the only Black elected official to serve in both chambers of Congress and is the first Black Republican elected in South Carolina since 1902. He was also the first Black Republican elected to Congress from the Deep South since Reconstruction.
And after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020 sparked nationwide protest, Scott became a lone voice for police reform among his peers, calling himself the only GOP senator with experience being racially profiled.
Scott detailed his younger years as the son of a nurse’s aide who worked 16-hour days.
“It was hard work. It was not glamorous,” he said. “But those 16-hour days put food on our table. And kept our lights on. They empowered her to move her boys out of a place filled with anger into a home full of love. My mom’s work ethic taught me there is dignity in all work.”
Help keep the City Paper free.
No paywalls.
No subscription cost.
Free delivery at 800 locations.
Help support independent journalism by donating today.
