NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — Tim Scott, the lone Black Republican in the U.S. Senate, announced Monday he is running for president.
“Joe Biden and the radical left are attacking every rung of the ladder that helped me climb,” Scott said. “And that is why I am announcing today that I am running for president of the United States of America.”
Scott’s bid has been months in the works as he teased his announcement in recent weeks, first announcing an exploratory committee in April and then officially filing the paperwork Friday to run. He joins a rapidly expanding field of contenders looking to knock off former President Donald Trump, the current Republican frontrunner who holds a commanding lead in GOP primary polls.
Scott was first appointed to the Senate from South Carolina in 2012, by then-Gov. Nikki Haley — now a presidential rival — to replace retiring Sen. Jim DeMint. Scott later won the election to fill the rest of his term in 2014 and went on to win full terms in 2016 and again last year. Scott’s political career began in the Charleston County Council in the mid-1990s before serving in the state House and the U.S. House.
With Scott and Haley, there are now two high-profile South Carolina politicians in the GOP race. After her governorship, Haley served in the Trump administration as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. South Carolina’s early primary has long been considered one of the most important on the presidential nominating calendar.
During a campaign call with reporters last week, senior Scott staffers detailed their theory of the case for why their candidate can win, promoting him as uniquely qualified for the job and as a messenger who can win over independents and Democrats while not straying from conservative policy positions. Scott’s fundraising ability will also give him an edge, these officials said.
Scott won’t be straying from hot-button cultural issues during the primary but will seek to run a more positive campaign that calls out grievances and victimhood being promoted in both parties, senior campaign officials said.
While voters shouldn’t expect Scott to come out of the gate assailing former President Donald Trump, the current GOP presidential front-runner, Scott has already spoken of the need for the party to nominate someone who can defeat Democrats next fall — an implicit shot at Trump that some of his rivals have already made.
“People want a fighter, that’s good, but they also want to win, that’s better,” Scott told reporters last month in Iowa. “So the real question is: How do we do that? One of the ways we do that is to make sure our message is in sync with the nation.”
An NBC News survey taken in mid-April found Scott tied with Haley at 3%, trailing Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence.
Former Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam is co-chairing Scott’s campaign, and he’s been bolstered by endorsements from fellow GOP Sens. Mike Rounds and John Thune, both of South Dakota. But though many of his GOP Senate colleagues have warm feelings toward Scott, most were not willing to officially back his campaign in conversations with NBC News.
Scott, whose voting record ranks him among the party’s more conservative senators, has traveled to the early voting states in recent months, traversing Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina as part of a “listening tour” as his campaign began to come into full view. In mid-April, Scott toured all three states to meet with voters, key activists and donors.
During a February event in Charleston, Scott detailed his personal story of overcoming childhood poverty and offered hints at the tenets of a potential presidential agenda — promoting opportunity zones, conservative police reform, curbing federal spending and enacting school choice policies.
“There is a way for us to unify this country around basic principles that lead us forward, but we have to put behind us a lie that this is the worst time in American history — only if American history started today,” Scott said.
At one point, Scott suggested conservatives are under siege and increasingly subjected to discrimination. His comments drew loud applause.
“Listen, I understand how it feels to be treated as a second-class citizen because of the color of my skin,” Scott said. “I refuse to be considered a second-class citizen because of the color of my party.”
Scott is one of the few top-tier challengers to Trump who doesn’t owe part of his political success to either a job in Trump’s administration or an endorsement that lifted him through a contested primary.
Posting to his Truth Social platform on Monday, Trump wished Scott “Good luck” in his bid and took the opportunity to hit DeSantis.
“It is rapidly loading up with lots of people, and Tim is a big step up from Ron DeSanctimonious, who is totally unelectable,” Trump added. “I got Opportunity Zones done with Tim, a big deal that has been highly successful. Good luck Tim!”
The South Carolina senator also enters the presidential race with more than $20 million in cash on hand, giving him a leg up on many of his rivals. Scott, who will travel to Iowa and New Hampshire following his Monday launch, has already placed a $6 million TV and radio ad-buy that is set to begin in those states Wednesday.
#Sen #Tim #Scott #jumps #presidential #race
