Global Courant 2023-05-01 02:18:07
Saying “it’s time to take the final step,” South Carolina Republican Senator Tim Scott will formally enter the race for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
Scott said at a political event in Charleston, South Carolina, on Sunday that he will make a “major” announcement for 2024 on May 22. his White House campaign.
‘Tell your friends. Make sure you’re there,” Scott said. “We have an important announcement and you want to be there.”
Scott, a rising star in the GOP and the only black Republican in the Senate, began a “Faith in America” listening tour in February. That tour has taken the senator twice in recent months to Iowa — the state that leads the GOP presidential nomination calendar — and once to New Hampshire, which holds the first primaries and votes second on the Republican schedule. The senator has also held campaign-style events in his home state of South Carolina, which will host the third game in the GOP primary and caucus lineup.
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Senator Tim Scott, RS.C., talks to guests at the breakfast counter while visiting the Red Arrow Diner, Thursday, April 13, 2023, in Manchester, New Hampshire. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa) (AP)
Earlier this month, Scott launched a presidential exploratory commission. He said he will “never flinch in defense of the conservative values that make America exceptional,” Scott announced his exploratory commission in a video first reported by Fox News.
Scott has offered voters what he calls an “optimistic, positive message anchored in conservatism” while highlighting this humble upbringing, noting that he was “raised by a single mother in poverty.”
The senator has shown that “individual responsibility leads to the American dream. I’ve been on both sides of the track and I’m so thankful that my story – which is a rare story around the world – isn’t so rare in America. Made in America is a story of those who start in one place and end up in a much better place.”
Asked by Fox News last weekend during a stop in Iowa about the reception he’s been receiving from voters, Scott said “so far, so good. I’m excited about where we are. I’m excited about the response to the message.”
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Scott, who ran for re-election last November in what he believes will be his last six-year term in the Senate, is expected to bring to justice evangelical Christian voters who play an outsized role in GOP politics in Iowa and his home state.
South Carolina Senator Tim Scott addresses the audience at a meeting of the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition on April 22, 2023 in Clive, Iowa (Fox news)
He will join a GOP White House field with former President Donald Trump, who announced his third straight presidential run in November and remains the clear front-runner in the Republican nomination race.
Scott will also face serious competition from Nikki Haley, the former ambassador to the United Nations and former two-time governor of South Carolina who launched a 2024 presidential campaign two months ago. Haley, who spends a lot of time on the campaign trail in Iowa and New Hampshire, and Scott share many of the same allies and donors.
Former two-term Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson formally launched a Republican presidential campaign last week. Among the other candidates in the race are multimillionaire entrepreneur, best-selling author and conservative commentator Vivek Ramaswamy, who announced his bid in February, Michigan businessman and 2022 gubernatorial candidate Perry Johnson, who launched his campaign last month, and conservative radio talk host and former governor’s nominee of California, Larry Elder, who ran for office a week and a half ago.
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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will remain on the sidelines in 2024, but is expected to launch a presidential campaign after his state’s legislative session ends next month. And former Vice President Mike Pence, who has made numerous trips to the early voting states over the past two years as he heads toward launching a presidential campaign, recently said he will make a 2024 decision in weeks.
Asked last weekend if his message is receptive to Republican primary voters or if they’re hungry for a fighter, Scott told Fox News, “I think people want a fighter and that’s good, but we also want to win, and that’s better. The question is how do we do that? And one of the ways we do that is to make sure our message is in sync with what the voters want and what the nation needs.”
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally on April 27, 2023 in Manchester, New Hampshire. Trump, who is currently handling a growing number of lawsuits against him, is the Republican front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination. ((Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images))
Scott’s comments appeared to be a swipe at Trump, who is once again contesting his 2020 election loss against President Biden, while reiterating his unproven claims that his defeat was due to an election “stolen” by “massive voter fraud.” The former president’s list of his legal grievances has also become a staple of the campaign, and at a rally last month in Texas, Trump stressed that “for those who have been wronged and betrayed … I am your retribution.”
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Scott took aim at Trump without mentioning the former president’s name, telling reporters: “I believe our nation needs to make a decision – are we going to be the country that focuses on complaints or are we going to be the province that will plant the seeds of greatness to germinate. I vote for germination, greatness.”
While Scott doesn’t have the same national standing among conservatives as Trump and DeSantis, he’s known as a ruthless fundraiser who had about $22 million in his campaign coffers at the end of March that could be transferred to a presidential campaign. The fundraising war chest could give Scott an edge over some of his potential rivals.
Paul Steinhauser is a political reporter from New Hampshire.
