Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only Black Republican in the Senate, on Wednesday announced he is launching a presidential exploratory committee, a move that signals in the strongest terms yet his intent to enter the 2024 race.
Emphasizing his race, his evangelical roots, and his upbringing as the son of a single mom who overcame poverty through determination and the opportunity that America offered to him, Scott argued that he is a messenger who is uniquely suited to reject the “culture of grievance” and “victimhood” he said has been fostered by President Biden and “the radical left.”
“All too often when they get called out for their failures, they weaponize race to divide us, to hold on to their power,” he said in the video. “When I fought back against their liberal agenda, they called me a prop. A token. Because I disrupt their narrative. I threaten their control. They know the truth of my life disproves their lies.”
He added that “America is the land of opportunity, not a land of oppression.”
“I know it because I’ve lived it,” he says in the video.
Scott moves closer to entering the GOP field, aiming to offer in some respects a more uplifting pitch than some of his potential rivals. His decision is not a surprise, because he has spent recent months laying the groundwork for a national campaign, with travel to early nominating states and events with donors. The new exploratory committee will allow his team to ramp up fundraising and pay for travel before he officially declares a bid.
The senator has made trips to Iowa and New Hampshire and has embarked on what he has called his “Faith in America listening tour,” introducing himself to voters who will have the first say in the 2024 Republican presidential primary process. He also wrote a book released last year: “America, a Redemption Story: Choosing Hope, Creating Unity.”
Coming off a decisive reelection win last fall, Scott, 57, is seen by many Republicans as part of a new generation of leaders in the party at a moment when some voters and officials have sought to move on from former president Donald Trump, the polling leader in the GOP race.
He has spoken out against Trump at times, emerging as a vocal critic of the 45th president’s comments after a deadly white-supremacist rally in 2017 and when Trump said four young Democratic congresswomen of color should “go back” to the countries they came from. Other times, Scott has been a defender of Trump’s policies and worked with him on legislation.
Scott could join a GOP field that also includes Nikki Haley, the former U.N. ambassador and South Carolina governor who appointed Scott to the Senate in 2013. The field is expected to grow in coming months, with Republicans such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former vice president Mike Pence also making moves toward entering the competition.
Scott has been traveling the country sharing an optimistic vision, but one that has also included ominous warnings that the left is trying to tear apart the country.
Echoing his previous remarks in a February speech in Iowa, Scott said it pains him to see the left “attacking every rung of the ladder that helped me climb” and said liberal policies would trap millions more families in “failing schools, crime-ridden neighborhoods and crushing inflation.”
“I bear witness that America can do for anyone what she has done for me,” he said.
While Scott has said he believes a more positive Republican vision could help Republicans “win 49 states and the popular vote,” early polling shows Scott barely registering nationally. He is trailing well behind Trump and DeSantis, who have established clear early leads on the rest of the prospective field while tapping into conservative grievances against the left and other foes. Scott’s allies hope that a well-funded campaign operation will help him gain ground in coming months as he continues to court Republican voters.
During an interview on Fox News on Wednesday morning, Scott dodged a question about how he planned to defeat Trump, stating simply that voters have told him they want to “have a conversation about their future.”
When pressed about his strategy for taking on the former president, Scott demurred. “What I’m saying in response to your question is that the field of play is focusing on President Biden’s failures,” he said.
In a statement, Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison said Scott would govern from the “far, conservative right” and described his agenda as “extreme.”
Scott already has significant financial resources he could draw on for a presidential bid, with more than $20 million in his Senate campaign account at the end of last year and $13 million in a super PAC with extensive funding from Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. He plans to update his donors at a retreat in Charleston, S.C., this weekend.
Scott could become the first senator to enter the 2024 presidential race. During his tenure, he has been involved in racial justice issues. He has advocated for overhauling criminal justice laws, for more funding for Black churches, and for tax incentives to encourage investment in low-income communities. Scott has been credited by Trump for getting his backing for such “opportunity zones.”
During a meeting with Trump in the Oval Office to tout the program in May 2020, Trump told reporters that Scott “first approached me and he mentioned it, and I loved the idea.”
“Tremendous,” Scott said, before praising the president.
But on other occasions, Scott has been critical of Trump.
When Trump said in 2017 that there were “very fine people on both sides” at a deadly white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Scott rebuked the president, telling a reporter, “I’m not going to defend the indefensible,” and that Trump’s “moral authority is compromised” by those comments.
Days later, Trump met with Scott at the White House, where the senator sought to explain to the president why his remarks had offended so many people.
“We sat in the Oval Office and when you’re criticizing the president of the United States, talking about the compromising of moral authority, it can strike a nerve with someone who is not typically a person who listens well in those instances,” Scott later told The Washington Post.
In 2019, when Trump said four young Democratic congresswomen of color should “go back” to the countries they came from, Scott called him out for making “unacceptable personal attacks” and using “racially offensive language.”
But Scott has largely been supportive of Trump — even opening the door last year to the possibility of being his running mate. When asked directly about being Trump’s No. 2 during a Fox News interview in February 2022, Scott responded: “I think everybody wants to be on President Trump’s bandwagon, though, without any question. One of the things I’ve said to the president is that he gets to decide the future of our party and our country because he is still the loudest voice.”
Trump endorsed Scott in his 2022 reelection campaign. Recently, Scott was also among the many Republicans who came to Trump’s defense after he was indicted in New York, describing Trump as a “victim” and accusing the prosecutor of waging a politically motivated attack.
When it comes to describing himself, Scott has talked openly about Christian faith. And in speeches, Scott often recounts his family history as evidence of America’s greatness, focusing on the ascension from his grandfather, who picked cotton in the Jim Crow-era South, to Scott’s position as a U.S. senator. Republicans selected Scott to respond to Biden’s first address to a joint session of Congress in 2021.
In that speech, Scott said, “Hear me clearly: America is not a racist country.” He added, “It’s backwards to fight discrimination with different types of discrimination. And it’s wrong to try to use our painful past to dishonestly shut down debates in the present.”
After his remarks, some critics started using the #UncleTim hashtag on Twitter, a derisive reference to a fictional character that is used to describe Black people who are willingly subservient to White people.
“For those of you on the left, you can call me a prop, you can call me a token, you can call me the n-word. You can question my blackness. You can even call me ‘Uncle Tim.’ Just understand, your words are no match for my evidence,” he said in his February speech in Iowa, referencing some of the more hypercritical social media backlash he received after the 2021 address. “My existence shows your irrelevance. The truth of my life disproves your lies.”
Scott has also described being questioned by the police because of his race. “There’s a deep divide between the Black community and law enforcement — a trust gap,” Scott said in 2016. “I do not know many African American men who do not have a very similar story to tell.”
Scott joined with Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) to work on policing legislation after the police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, sparked national outrage. When the bill fell apart, both men blamed the other side for its demise.
Scott had served one term in the House when Haley, then South Carolina’s governor, appointed him to the Senate to replace Republican Jim DeMint, who opted to resign from the chamber. Scott became the first Black person from the South to serve in the Senate since Reconstruction. Haley said at the time that she chose him on merits, not because of his race.
Scott was among those calling for the removal of the Confederate flag from the grounds of the State House in 2015 after the massacre by a white supremacist of nine people at a Black church in Charleston. Haley also supported its removal and signed a bill to have it permanently taken down.
“I do not believe that the vast majority of those who support the flag have hate in their hearts, but it is clear that this is the right step forward for our state,” he said in a statement at the time.
Scott’s political career began in local government, serving on the Charleston County Council. He made headlines in 1997 for displaying the Ten Commandments outside the Charleston County Council chambers, resulting in a lawsuit over the separation of church and state, which Scott ultimately lost.
Scott later served in the South Carolina House before running for Congress in 2010, during the GOP tea party wave. In the Republican primary, Scott beat the son of the late Strom Thurmond, a segregationist who represented South Carolina in the Senate for nearly 50 years.
Hannah Knowles and Ben Terris contributed to this report.