Tim Scott has become the latest Republican to enter an increasingly crowded field of presidential contenders challenging Donald Trump for the party’s nomination in 2024.
The 57-year-old US senator from South Carolina has long been mooted as a possible presidential candidate. The only black Republican in the upper chamber of Congress, Scott formed a presidential exploratory committee last month that allowed him to raise and spend money on a potential run, and has made stops to several critical early voting states in recent weeks, including Iowa and New Hampshire.
He made his bid official on Monday with a speech in North Charleston, South Carolina, that leaned heavily on his personal story of growing up in poverty, his Christian faith and his conservative policy priorities.
“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 allies say he offers a more positive message than many of his fellow Republicans, and he is popular with colleagues on Capitol Hill and deep-pocketed donors to the Republican party. Many see him as a potential running mate for Trump or another Republican if his own presidential campaign falters.
He secured the endorsement on Monday of John Thune, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate. In his campaign launch speech, he gave a special shout-out to Larry Ellison, the Oracle founder who has been one of Scott’s biggest financial backers.
Scott starts his presidential campaign with some $22mn cash on hand left over from his Senate re-election bid last year. His SuperPac, the Opportunity Matters Fund, finished last year with $13mn in the bank, thanks in part to large donations from the likes of Ellison and leading figures from Wall Street, including Citadel’s Ken Griffin and Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman.
But Scott faces an uphill battle if he is going to gain traction among his fellow Republican candidates, all of whom trail Trump in national opinion polls. The former president remains the odds-on favourite for this party’s nomination, with the backing of more than half of Republican grassroots voters, according to the latest RealClearPolitics polling average.
In a distant second is Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor who is expected to file paperwork for his own presidential bid later this week, who has the support of just shy of 20 per cent of Republican voters. Scott, meanwhile, has the support of less than 2 per cent of the Republican electorate.
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