Tim Scott joins the 2024 Republican race for president.

AbcNews: Tim Scott joins the 2024 Republican race for president.
By Libby Cathey, Mariam Khan, and Will McDuffie
May 22, 2023, 11:12 AM



Sen. Tim Scott, who grew up in working-class poverty to become South Carolina's first Black senator, and now the Senate's lone Black Republican, declared his candidacy for president on Monday, coming into the 2024 race with more cash on hand than all of his competitors -- and a story that he says embodies the American dream.

The 57-year-old senator held the official announcement event inside the Buccaneer Fieldhouse on Monday morning at his alma mater, Charleston Southern University, speaking enthusiastically in front of a backdrop of supporters, his name and campaign slogan, "Faith in America."

"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," Scott said, after speaking several minutes off the cuff.

"Joe Biden and the radical left are attacking every rung of the ladder that helped me climb," he continued. "And that is why I'm announcing today that I am running for president of the United States of America!"

"When I cut your taxes, they called me a prop. When I re-funded the police, they called me a token. When I pushed back on President Biden, they even called me the N-word," he said. "I disrupt their narrative. I threaten their control. The truth of my life disrupts their lies!"

Scott on Friday filed official paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to enter the race, setting into motion a $6 million ad-buy in Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two states of the Republican nominating contest, which will air starting Wednesday and run through the first GOP primary debate in late August.

Choosing to take on the current president as opposed to any primary opponents, Scott offered an outlook more positive than others to assert "America is not a nation in decline," but under President Joe Biden, he says, it has become "a nation in retreat."

"America is the city on the hill," Scott said in closing, walking off the stage to join standing supporters, as he tends to do on the stump. "I'm living proof that God and a good family and the United States of America can do all things if we believe. Will you believe it with me?"

Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the Senate's No. 2 Republican, endorsed Scott and delivered the opening prayer at his announcement in North Charleston, describing him as a candidate who offers "boundless hope and optimism for this country."

"Tim Scott is the real deal. And he will make a great president of the United States," Thune said. "I think our country is ready to be inspired again."

Scott will travel to Iowa and Hampshire later this week, adding to a handful of visits he's already made this year. His official campaign committee, Tim Scott for America, will be based in the Palmetto State, where he will return for Memorial Day weekend.

While he's polling in the low single digits, major donors, including Oracle founder Larry Ellison, are banking on the senator's optimistic disposition breaking through -- and allowing him to overtake former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, both ahead of him in voter surveys.

Scott's campaign has touted his joining the race with $22 million in campaign cash, which it says is the most of any presidential candidate in American history.

The official campaign launch follows a season of courting voters including his "Faith in America" town hall series after forming a presidential exploratory committee, a step which allows for candidates to start raising money. Staffers say his campaign for president really came to light after he won 63% of the vote in his reelection to the Senate in November, despite an increasingly polarizing climate.

The junior senator rolled out his exploratory committee on April 12, which he noted marked the anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War. His announcement video was filmed at Fort Sumter, where he once again called for Americans to overcome deep political divisions.

A source close to Scott said he had not spoken to Trump ahead of his announcement. The two share a cordial relationship, but Scott sparingly condemned Trump during his presidency for racially-charged comments, such as after Trump expressed support for the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Scott responded, "Racism is real. It is alive."

Scott has declined to say whether he would support Trump if Trump were to win the GOP nomination, while Trump's team has painted the primary as a race for second place.

"Tim Scott's entrance, and aggressive media purchase, doesn't only kneecap DeSantis, but Scott sees the same thing as Youngkin, Sununu, Burgum, Christie and others: the path to 2nd place is wide open," said Taylor Budowich, CEO of the Trump-aligned Make America Great Again Inc. PAC. "They smell Ron DeSantis' blood in the water and no longer see him as an obstacle."

Scott's personal story

Not only is Scott coming into the race with a heft of cash on hand, but his campaign also says he brings a different personal story to the race.

Scott credits his mother who he says worked 16-hour days as a nursing assistant to support him, and a Chick-fil-A store operator, who helped Scott get his first job at a movie theater in his teens, with enabling him to pave a path from working-class poverty to the U.S. Senate.

"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," Scott said Monday, after bringing her on stage to thank her for her support.

He also cites his experience at South Carolina's Palmetto Boys State program as influential in his decision to pursue public service. After working in insurance and financial services post-college, Scott ran for Charleston County Council and the South Carolina House of Representatives.

Scott was first appointed to the Senate in 2013, plucked from the U.S. House of Representatives by then-South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley -- who he'll now face in the primary. This after another senator, Jim DeMint, resigned to lead the Heritage Foundation. Scott retained his seat in a 2014 special election and glided to victory again in 2016 and 2022, with more than 60% of the vote in both cycles.

Long seen as a rising star in the GOP, Scott delivered the Republican Party's rebuttal to President Joe Biden's inaugural joint address to Congress in 2021.

Scott's signature legislation creating "opportunity zones" was passed as part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act under Trump. He was tapped in 2020 by Republican leaders to negotiate on police-reforms before those bipartisan talks collapsed.

He's starting off his campaign with multiple colleagues' endorsements, with South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds joining Thune. Fellow South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is among 11 Senate Republicans already endorsing Trump, although back in 2016 he infamously said, "If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed ... and we will deserve it."

Scott joins a primary field that includes Haley, Trump, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Others are expected to officially enter in the coming days, including DeSantis and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.

Scott closed his speech with several, "Let's go!" call-and-response chants with supporters like Pam Hourihan, 47, who was wearing green scrubs, having used her lunch break as a pharmacist to walk 10 minutes to the venue. She said she's known Scott personally through church, calling him a "great Christian."

"He's a good person. He's been a good person forever. This isn't anything new. He's always been this way," she told ABC News.

P.J. Kuyper, 55, who voted for Trump in 2020, said Scott "has a message that is exactly what America needs to hear" and that he would "absolutely not" vote for Trump again if he were to win the nomination.

"I think his faith in America, the goodness of it, and the opportunities are way more powerful than any message of grievance," Kuyper said.

Videos at https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/tim-scott-joins-2024-republican-race-president/story?id=99457037

Of course, he will be embraced by all of the blacks across the nation.


That and 50 cents will still get you a cup of coffee.

Sith Lord of Rudeness wrote:

Of course, he will be embraced by all of the blacks across the nation.


That and 50 cents will still get you a cup of coffee.  

pffff ...Not even ... I don't get why so many campaigns are so concentrated on the black votes .. Blacks are only about 13% of the population
... I guess they all wanna show how ~inclusive~ they are ... Scott is the black guy from Indiana? ...I'm sure they like him there...but it's probably just as important that the DNC likes him and wants him nominated

I saw (part of) a speech that Biden just made at a black college, where he claimed that white supremacy is the #1 biggest threat in the country ...and claimed he wasn't just sayin that cuz he was at a black college...haa ..SMH ... He got a standing ovation

Democrats will be playing identity politics as usual...They'll use the race card at every opportunity ...Republicans are racist for wanting to stop the border crisis and the uncontrolled mass migration ...

I think if democrats win in 2024 they'll probably have total control of the government from then on .. The U.S. will be finished

Grackle wrote:

///

I think if democrats win in 2024 they'll probably have total control of the government from then on .. The U.S. will be finished

We were finished when Trump wasn't reelected.

Quote :

We were finished when Trump wasn't reelected.

Yea, i was sayin Trump is our last hope while he was still president .. Biden is even worse than i imagined .. I've tried to be a little optimistic when republicans won the house,  but it looks bleak

oliver clotheshoffe wrote:

I hope this guy gets the nomination just so I can watch the lefties freak out.

"I can't vote for him, he's a Republican!"

Yes but he's black so you have no choice...

"Aaauuuugggghhhh!!!!!"

Who is Larry Ellison, the billionaire backing Sen. Tim Scott’s presidential run?
The founder of Oracle is reportedly looking to donate $60 million to a pro-Scott PAC.
Jon Ward·Chief National Correspondent-Yahoo News
Wed, May 31, 2023 at 11:22 AM MDT

Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle, “was the first” CEO of a major firm in the 1990’s “to risk everything” on the idea that the internet would radically reshape the software business, according to a biographer. It made him the world’s richest person for a time.

Now, the 78-year-old billionaire — currently ranked by Forbes as fourth-wealthiest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $127 billion — is making another hefty wager, this time on an underdog presidential candidate with big upside.

Ellison is preparing to spend up to $60 million to help Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., run for president, CNBC reported last week.

That’s double the $30 million that Ellison gave to Scott’s super-PAC in the 2022 election cycle. Scott’s group directed much of that money to help Republican candidates in the midterm elections.

Scott announced his candidacy for president last week. He already has $22 million in his campaign account.

The money from Ellison, the owner of Hawaii’s sixth-largest island, means that Scott is likely to stay in this race for a long while.

“Campaigns … end because they run out of money, which is the main reason, or they run out of time,” Stuart Stevens, a veteran Republican campaign consultant, said recently on MSNBC.

“So they’ll hang in there,” Stevens said of Scott’s campaign.

Scott’s prospects

Scott, 57, is new to the 2024 Republican primary for president. The winner of that contest will face off against President Biden in the November 2024 general election.

But so far, Scott has polled no higher than 2%. He’s stuck in a group of candidates trying to break out of the pack to emerge as the non-Trump Republican alternative, as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis slides in the polls.

Scott is in sixth place behind former President Donald Trump, who leads the FiveThirtyEight polling average at 54%, followed by DeSantis at 20%, former Vice President Mike Pence at 5%, Nikki Haley, the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, at 4%, and biopharmaceutical CEO Vivek Ramaswamy, also at 4%.

But few of the other candidates — except Trump and DeSantis — have the financial resources Ellison has made available to Scott.

Trump raised $14 million in the first quarter of the year. DeSantis entered the campaign sitting on $80 million he raised for his gubernatorial account, which he can transfer to a PAC that will support his candidacy.

Haley raised about $8 million in the first quarter of 2023. Ramaswamy loaned his campaign $10 million this year and has raised about $1 million.

'Tim is a chameleon'

Scott was reportedly introduced to Ellison by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Scott and Ellison bonded over their support for education reform and school choice, Puck’s Teddy Schleifer has reported.

Scott is a talented speaker and campaigner, and his top political adviser has touted his ability to charm others.

“Tim is a chameleon. He can talk to third graders and billionaires and lead a church congregation,” Jennifer DeCasper, Scott’s closest adviser, told the Washington Post writer Ben Terris for his forthcoming book, “The Big Break.”

But Scott’s biography and his positive message are the reasons why many Republicans hope he gains traction.

Scott is the only Black Republican in the Senate. In 2014, he became the first Black U.S. senator elected from a Deep South state since Reconstruction and was just the seventh Black senator in American history.

He has a compelling personal history of growing up in a lower-income household in North Charleston, S.C. He was raised for most of his childhood by a single mom and has spoken about how he was adrift until a Chick-fil-A franchise owner took him under his wing in high school and mentored him.

Ellison, too, came from humble circumstances. He was born to a 19-year-old unwed New Yorker in 1944 who gave him up for adoption to an aunt who raised Ellison in Chicago.

Ellison’s maverick political history

Ellison had an outsized, flamboyant reputation in the 1990s and into the 2000s. He trash-talked competitors, entered and exited multiple marriages, and once instructed the captain of his 243-foot superyacht to race past a slightly smaller superyacht owned by Microsoft's co-founder, Paul Allen.

Allen and his guests were thrown by the resulting wake. “It was an adolescent prank,” Ellison said at the time. “I highly recommend it.”

Ellison was fond of former President Bill Clinton and donated generously to his reelection in 1996. But he has become more politically conservative and more reclusive over the years.

In 2016, Ellison gave $4 million to support Sen. Marco Rubio’s candidacy for president. Rubio, a Florida Republican, made a run at the GOP nomination but was unable to emerge from a crowded field. Trump, meanwhile, won multiple early primaries in 2016 with only about a third of the vote.

Republicans worry now that their party may — with the number of GOP candidates growing — repeat the mistake of splitting the non-Trump vote among too many alternatives and give him a lane to the nomination.

During the Trump presidency, Ellison held a fundraiser that netted Trump’s reelection campaign $7 million. But for now, he’s with Scott, who took the unusual step of giving his primary financial backer a shout-out at his campaign launch event last week.

“I thank God almighty that he continues to provide me with really cool mentors,” Scott told a South Carolina crowd. “One of my mentors, Larry Ellison, is with us today, and I am so thankful to have so many different mentors in the house.”

Tim Scott drops out of the 2024 presidential race
NBC Universal
NNAMDI EGWUONWU AND ALEX TABET AND MARK MURRAY AND GARY GRUMBACH AND ALI VITALI AND EMMA BARNETT AND DASHA BURNS
November 12, 2023 at 8:12 PM

Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina announced Sunday night that he is dropping out of the 2024 Republican presidential campaign, shocking a TV interviewer and even his own campaign staff with an abrupt departure from the race.

“When I go back to Iowa, it will not be as a presidential candidate. I am suspending my campaign," Scott said in an appearance on former GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy's Fox News program.

"I think the voters, who are the most remarkable people on the planet, have been really clear that they’re telling me: not now," Scott continued.

The announcement was a surprise: Gowdy, a former colleague of Scott's in the House of Representatives, appeared to do a double-take as he made his statement. Multiple Scott staffers told NBC News they got no warning he was ending the campaign, finding out only by watching him say so on TV.

Scott's campaign even sent out a fundraising email not long before he announced he was leaving the race. "We want to give you ONE LAST CHANCE to donate this weekend and help Tim reach his campaign goal. Can you chip in to help Tim win?" the campaign wrote.

His decision comes amid efforts to consolidate the GOP opposition to former President Donald Trump, who has big leads in primary polls, including in the first caucus state, Iowa. Scott took 7% support there in the October NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll, putting him in fourth place.

Scott's dropout also comes days after the third Republican presidential debate in Miami, after which he canceled a scheduled weekend campaign swing in Iowa, citing the flu.

Scott started the 2024 campaign relatively little-known compared to some of his competitors. His campaign and an allied super PAC spent nearly $25 million on ads in Iowa and other early states promoting him as an optimistic conservative, according to AdImpact, an ad-tracking service. Scott saw an uptick in early-state polls soon through the summer.

But money started to grow tight leading up to Sunday’s dropout, according to a source familiar with the campaign. Scott never caught fire in the GOP debates. And his poll numbers stagnated as an in-state rival caught attention. He is dropping out of the race just as former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has pulled into second place in early-state primary polls.

Haley, who appointed Scott to the Senate in 2012, praised him on X, the social media platform. "Tim Scott is a good man of faith and an inspiration to so many. The Republican primary was made better by his participation in it. South Carolina is blessed to continue to have him as our senator," she wrote.

Last month, Scott’s super PAC canceled millions of dollars in planned fall advertising, saying the Republican electorate wasn’t “focused or ready for a Trump alternative.”

“There comes a point when it’s clear that there isn’t going to be a breakthrough moment, and one was really needed given where he stood in the field," a Scott campaign staffer said. The staffer praised Scott's message and personal favorability numbers, "but they never translated into support, and that’s just the reality of what it takes to win — and if you don’t have a path, it’s time to help consolidate to beat Trump."

While Scott's voters are now going to have to find another candidate, he indicated in the interview with Gowdy that he wasn't looking to endorse one of his former rivals at this time.

"I’m going to recommend that the voters study each candidate and their candidacies and, frankly, their past and make a decision for the future of the country," he said. "The best way for me to be helpful is to not weigh in on who they should endorse."

And Scott seemed uninterested in the idea of becoming a candidate for vice president later on in the campaign. "Vice president has never been on my to-do list for this campaign, and it’s certainly not there now," he told Gowdy.

Scott is leaving the race after another well-known candidate dropped out. Former Vice President Mike Pence suspended his campaign in late October, as the Republican presidential field winnows down.

Several of Scott's former 2024 rivals reacted to the news on social media.

“Tim Scott is a strong conservative with bold ideas about how to get our country back on track. I respect his courage to run this campaign and thank him for his service to America and the U.S. Senate. I look forward to Tim continuing to be a leader in our party for years to come," Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis posted on X.

Vivek Ramaswamy praised Scott as a "good dude" before referring to an interaction the two had onstage at last week's Republican debate (and taking a dig at Haley).

"I gave @SenatorTimScott a congratulatory [gold fist bump emoji] on stage when the other South Carolinian shamelessly copied *exactly* what he said," Ramaswamy posted on X. "Wishing Tim all the best back in the U.S. Senate."