Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) speaks on the Imaginative and prescient ’24 Nationwide Conservative Discussion board March 18, 2023 in Charleston, South Carolina.
Win McNamee | Getty Photographs
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina launched an exploratory committee for a 2024 presidential marketing campaign on Wednesday, taking a serious step towards a Republican main enviornment that former President Donald Trump has dominated up to now.
“That is private to me,” Scott, 57, stated in a video saying the committee. “I’ll by no means again down in protection of the conservative values that makes America distinctive. And that is why I am saying my exploratory committee for president of the USA.”
Scott’s transfer towards a White Home run places him on monitor to collide with fellow South Carolina Republican Nikki Haley, the previous governor and United Nations ambassador who launched her personal presidential marketing campaign in February.
Each seem to have a difficult job in attempting to defeat Trump, the celebration’s de facto chief, and dislodge potential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as GOP voters’ most well-liked various to Trump. Trump has dominated early Republican main polling, whereas DeSantis has often held the second spot.
Scott made historical past by turning into the primary Black senator elected within the U.S. south for the reason that post-Civil Battle Reconstruction Period. He’s at the moment the one Black Republican within the Senate — two different Black incumbent senators, Raphael Warnock of Georgia and Cory Booker of New Jersey, are Democrats — and one in all simply 4 Black Republicans to serve within the chamber in U.S. historical past.
In his announcement video Wednesday morning, Scott slammed President Joe Biden and the left for attempting to “weaponize race to divide us.” He accused his political foes of labeling him a “prop” and a “token” as a result of “I disrupt their narrative.”
Scott’s video was launched on the day marking the begin of the Civil Battle and was filmed close to Fort Sumter, the place the warfare’s first main battle passed off in South Carolina, his committee famous.
The senator, who has been touring key main states, is planning one other swing this week via Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, his committee stated.
Scott’s preparation for his presidential run was effectively telegraphed. In a fundraising electronic mail in March, Scott even teased, “I wished you to listen to this from me first, Good friend. I’ve decided…. To go to church!”
That is breaking information. Please examine again for updates.