Sen. Tim Scott formally announced his candidacy for president on Friday, joining a burgeoning field of Republicans hoping to unseat Donald Trump as the party’s standard-bearer in 2024.
Scott, who was raised in poverty and in 2012 became the first Black senator from the South since Reconstruction, is anticipated to largely draw from his own life narrative and achievements when discussing economic and social policies while running for president.
Scott is attempting to put together a combination of traditional conservatives, evangelical Christians, and moderate Republicans in his underdog campaign. Scott is known as a cheerful, well-mannered figure in the Senate who neither fervently embraced nor angrily condemned Trump’s ideas.
Days before Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, one of his major rivals in the GOP primary, is anticipated to formally enter the campaign, he is scheduled to conduct a launch ceremony at his alma mater, Charleston Southern University in North Charleston, on Monday.
According to a senior campaign insider, Scott’s team changed his account name with the Federal Election Commission from “Tim Scott Presidential Exploratory Committee” to “Tim Scott for America” on Friday in preparation for a $6 million ad buy the campaign was planning to make in Iowa and New Hampshire. Scott made his presidential exploratory committee announcement last month after visiting Iowa, which holds the early nomination, in February.
Scott has already visited his home state of South Carolina and participated in political campaigns in both New Hampshire and the Hawkeye State. South Carolina is anticipated to host the third Republican presidential primary after the caucuses in New Hampshire and Iowa.
The former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley is already in the race, and Scott has long been friends with her as well as fundraisers and supporters from the Palmetto State.
According to public polls, Scott and Haley are both in the low single digits, with Haley marginally ahead. Vivek Ramaswamy and the former governor of Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson, entered the campaign before her in February with a launch event in Charleston. In November, Trump announced his candidacy.
