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Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina launched a presidential exploratory committee Wednesday morning.
“I will never back down in defense of the conservative values that make America exceptional. And that’s why I’m announcing my exploratory committee for president of the United States,” Scott said in a new video.
Tim Scott – the only Black Republican in the Senate – has been testing the waters for months. Since setting off on a listening tour in February focused on “Faith in America,” he’s made frequent visits to Iowa. He’s scheduled to hold events in the early voting state on Wednesday, according to CNN.
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking the past few months,” Scott wrote in a Tuesday night email to his supporters teasing a Wednesday morning announcement on Fox. “I’ve been thinking about my faith. I’ve been thinking about the future of our country. And I’ve been thinking about the Left’s plan to ruin America.”
Scott easily won reelection to the Senate last fall and ended the year with more than $21 million in his campaign account, which he could use for a presidential bid.
Scott enters an early and overcrowded race
Former President Donald Trump, who announced his campaign to win back the White House last fall, has led the GOP primary field, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – who has yet to announce a bid – has also attracted attention from GOP voters. Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson – a frequent Trump critic – announced that he’s running for the GOP nomination earlier this month. And Scott’s fellow South Carolinian, former Gov. Nikki Haley, announced her bid in February.
At a Christian conservative forum in his home state last month, Scott took aim at President Joe Biden’s economic policy and what he called the “disrespect” of law enforcement.
He said that to “restore faith in America, we must be the party of security,” arguing for more funding for police departments and to “close the US southern border, period.”
Tim Scott once stated Trump’s morals had been “compromised”
He’s occasionally spoken out against Trump, such was the rare case after the former president equivocated on racially motivated protesters and subsequent violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.
“I’m not going to defend the indefensible. I’m not here to do that,” Scott said in an interview with Vice News at the time, going on to add that Trump’s “moral authority” had been “compromised.”
Scott delivered the GOP response to Biden’s address to a joint session of Congress in 2021, which gave him a prominent national platform from which to speak to the country and counter Biden’s message.
Before joining the Senate, Tim Scott served one term in the US House. He also served in the South Carolina state House and on the Charleston County Council.
Scott has some catching up to do
A new Winthrop University poll out of South Carolina shows that Donald Trump is still the favorite in the state to get the Republican nomination in 2024 by a margin of 21%.
The poll was conducted among 1,657 adults, including 485 Republicans who are registered to vote. The overall margin of error was 2.41 points, while the margin for Republicans was 4.45 points.