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Tim Scott Launches 2024 Presidential Exploratory Committee
(Bloomberg) -- Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina launched a presidential exploratory committee Wednesday, signaling his intent to challenge Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
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In a video released to coincide with the anniversary of the start of the Civil War, Scott said the US is “once again being tested.”
“I have found that people are starving for hope,” Scott said Wednesday in an appearance on Fox News. “They’re starving for an optimistic, positive message that is anchored in conservative values.”
The move allows Scott, who teased the announcement in an email to supporters late Tuesday, to begin raising money toward a presidential campaign. The Post & Courier in South Carolina earlier reported his decision.
Exploratory committees allow candidates to raise and spend money to pay for polling, consultants, travel and other services that allow them to test the waters, gauging their potential success in a campaign.
Scott, 57, who was reelected last November to what he said would be his final six-year term, had been taking steps to run for the White House, including visiting early-voting states on what he called a “Faith in America” listening tour. He has events in Iowa on Wednesday, New Hampshire on Thursday and South Carolina on Friday and Saturday.
Scott is one of three Black senators and the only one who’s a Republican. First elected in 2013, he often refers to his early struggles, growing up poor in North Charleston, and the inspiration he drew from his mother and others to overcome them.
His allies see a potential path to the nomination or as an eventual vice-presidential candidate for Scott, who emphasizes conservative principles and supports the policies of Trump but with an optimistic view for the US.
But Scott would enter the race far behind Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — who’s widely expected to run — and other potential Republican contenders. And he would be the second candidate from South Carolina to enter after Nikki Haley, the state’s former governor and ambassador to the UN under Trump.
Scott has less than 1% support in a RealClearPolitics average of GOP presidential polls. A Winthrop University poll of registered Republican voters in South Carolina released on Wednesday showed Trump as the clear early favorite in the early-voting primary state with 41% followed by DeSantis at 20%, Haley at 18% and Scott at 7%.
Aside from Trump and Haley, former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, Ohio entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and Michigan businessman Perry Johnson have all entered the 2024 Republican race. Several other prominent Republicans, including DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence, are considering White House campaigns.
Democrats noted that Scott was a fierce advocate of Trump’s Make America Great Again agenda and 2017 tax law.
“There’s no question that special interests are celebrating as Tim Scott throws his hat into the 2024 race for the MAGA base,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison said in a statement.
Scott served on the Charleston County Council, the South Carolina House of Representatives and the US House of Representatives before being appointed to the US Senate in 2013 by Haley to replace retiring Senator Jim DeMint. Scott won a special election in 2014 for the balance of DeMint’s term, was elected to a full term in 2016 and reelected last year.
The senator has been an effective fundraiser. His 2022 Senate race wasn’t competitive, but he still raised $43 million and had $22 million left over, which he can tap for a presidential run.
--With assistance from Bill Allison.
(Updates with comments from Scott in ninth paragraph and additional details throughout.)
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