During a non-public assembly with evangelical religion leaders in Iowa this summer season, Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina used to be requested about a subject matter he would like now not to talk about: his love lifestyles.
Mr. Scott, 57, has put his religion and dedication to conservative circle of relatives values on the middle of his marketing campaign for president, which at that time used to be in its earliest weeks. None of the pastors in attendance puzzled his religion. But a minimum of one used to be desirous about his loss of a spouse and kids.
“You’re unmarried, and you want to lead the country. But we can’t even see how you’ve led a family. Help me out with that,” Michael Demastus, a pastor in Iowa who has met with the senator more than one occasions, recalled asking all over the assembly. He supposed the query, he added, “not in a condemning way — just genuinely want to know a little bit more.”
Mr. Scott informed the gang that he used to be in a courting with a lady whom he used to be thinking about however now not but able to introduce to the general public, in line with two accounts of the assembly.
Mr. Demastus mentioned that Mr. Scott’s reaction happy him within the second, and that his congregation hasn’t gave the impression to care a lot somehow. It’s now not a subject citizens have clamored to invite the candidate about all over the town halls. And but, as Mr. Scott joked at an evangelical convention in Des Moines, queries in regards to the girl in his lifestyles were “one of the more asked questions recently.”
And Mr. Scott is answering, alternatively reluctantly.
“I am dating a lovely Christian girl,” he informed Iowa’s legal professional common, Brenna Bird, who requested him what she known as the “personal” query proper off the bat. “One of the things I love about the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that it points us always in the right direction. Proverbs 18:22 says, ‘He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.’ So can we just pray together for me?”
An established bachelor, Mr. Scott is infrequently a rarity in America, the place more people than ever report being single. But a presidential candidate’s marital standing is just about not possible to keep away from at the marketing campaign path. Some of Mr. Scott’s opponents, like Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Vivek Ramaswamy, have given their spouses and small children starring roles as they paintings to win over the ones evangelical citizens for whom conventional circle of relatives values are best of thoughts. The widespread home scenes be offering a stark distinction with the race’s front-runner, former President Donald J. Trump, who’s twice-divorced and dealing with 4 felony indictments, one involving hush-money bills to a porn celebrity. His spouse, Melania Trump, has been in large part absent.
Mr. Scott, who’s polling within the decrease unmarried digits, is occasionally joined by way of his mom and his nephew, whom he speaks of as a son. And he talks such a lot about his lifestyles tale and his Christian religion that many potential citizens in Iowa and New Hampshire mentioned that when assembly him for the primary time, they felt like they had been studying a lot about him and his persona, even with out a partner at his facet.
Interviews with greater than a dozen conservative citizens and grass-roots organizers throughout early states recommend that they have got larger considerations than whom or whether or not Mr. Scott is relationship.
Nearly all, maximum of whom had most effective begun taking note of Mr. Scott this 12 months, mentioned they didn’t thoughts that he used to be single or childless. Several mentioned they weren’t conscious about his marital standing. And many mentioned they cared way more about his perspectives on meaty problems like immigration and the financial system — and about what they noticed as his loss of any private scandal in anyway.
“Is he? OK,” Anne Hoeing, 78, a New Hampshire voter and retired instructor, mentioned after being knowledgeable that Mr. Scott used to be unmarried. “Who cares? I mean, I don’t care. I would say I’d be very hesitant about a president who was married several times and there was all kinds of baggage — you know what I mean? I’d be more hesitant about that.”
After Axios reported this month that a small number of potential Scott donors had expressed considerations about his marital standing and his reluctance to talk about his private lifestyles, Mr. Scott advised that his combatants had been in the back of it. “What we’ve seen is that poll after poll after poll says that the voters don’t care. But it seems like opponents do care, and so media covers what opponents plant,” he mentioned in New Hampshire. “The good news is, I just keep fighting the good fight. Make sure that America is better off today than yesterday.”
In a newer interview with The Washington Post, Mr. Scott introduced a couple of further information about his courting: Mr. Scott and his female friend met thru a pal from church, he mentioned; they were given to grasp every different by way of speaking about God and doing Bible learn about in combination. They additionally performed pickleball.
Mr. Scott declined to be interviewed for this text, and his marketing campaign declined to spot his female friend or make her to be had to be interviewed.
He has advised that rival campaigns planted tales about his being unmarried as a result of attacking him for his race can be a bridge too a long way. “You can’t say I’m Black, because that would be terrible, so find something else that you can attack,” Mr. Scott informed The Post.
Addressing unfounded hypothesis about Mr. Scott’s sexual orientation that has bounced across the political chattering magnificence, his marketing campaign supervisor, Jennifer DeCasper, informed The Post that he used to be now not homosexual.
Those closest to Mr. Scott and his circle of relatives say that the solution to the perennial query maximum unmarried or single folks face — why? — is extra reflective of his busy time table than a loss of pastime in relationship.
“I don’t remember ever hearing that question until the presidential run,” mentioned Chad Connelly, a former chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party and founding father of the faith-based political advocacy team Faith Wins.
Andy Sabin, a Republican megadonor who helps Mr. Scott’s marketing campaign, mentioned he had now not spoken with Mr. Scott about his marital standing or heard of considerations about it from potential donors he has attempted to court docket. He added that “not one person” had come to him with questions on Mr. Scott’s private relationships.
“Nobody says you have to be married to be president,” Mr. Sabin mentioned. “It’s kind of sad — you get presidents that are unhappily married. That’s worse.”
Mr. Scott would sign up for a small team of bachelor presidents if elected. Only two have entered the White House single: Grover Cleveland, who in 1886 used to be married on the White House, and James Buchanan, who left place of work in 1861 and not wed.
He may be now not the primary presidential candidate to stand questions on his bachelorhood. Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, who may be single, noticed his marital standing temporarily develop into an issue of pastime all over his run for president in 2020. He made public his courting with the actress Rosario Dawson more or less a month into his marketing campaign.
During the 2016 presidential number one, Senator Lindsey Graham, additionally from South Carolina, confronted a barrage of questions on his private lifestyles. “I don’t think there’s anything in the Constitution that says single people need not apply for president,” Mr. Graham said at one point. “And if it bothers some people, then they won’t vote for me. I offer what I offer.”
Mr. Scott rose to prominence in South Carolina politics preaching — and working towards, in line with him — abstinence ahead of marriage. He used to be elected to the House of Representatives in 2010. But in 2012, the 12 months he used to be appointed to the Senate, he informed an interviewer that he used to be now not adhering to that observe fairly in addition to he had up to now. He remained, alternatively, reticent at the subject of his relationships.
His unmarried standing came up simply days after he introduced his 2024 presidential marketing campaign. In a May appearance at an Axios event, Mr. Scott used to be requested about being a bachelor. At first he challenged the query: “The fact that half of America’s adult population is single for the first time, to suggest that somehow being married or not married is going to be the determining factor of whether you’re a good president or not, it sounds like we’re living in 1963 and not 2023,” he mentioned.
Then he advised that being unmarried as president could be a get advantages — ahead of letting it slip that he used to be relationship any person. “I probably have more time, more energy and more latitude to do the job,” Mr. Scott mentioned, including: “My girlfriend wants to see me when I come home.”
The disclosure spurred a flurry of pastime.
Maurice Washington, a former chairman of the Charleston County Republican Party and an established Scott best friend, faulted Mr. Scott’s presidential marketing campaign for now not proactively addressing questions on his private lifestyles.
“I think the people he’s paying the big bucks to need to do a better job in preparing him in how he handles or responds to it,” Mr. Washington mentioned.
Some citizens mentioned they noticed Mr. Scott’s private lifestyles as unexceptional.
“I didn’t get married until I was 37,” mentioned Dave Laugerman, a 73-year-old architect from Des Moines who mentioned he used to be bearing in mind supporting Mr. Scott and a number of other different applicants as choices to Mr. Trump. “It doesn’t bother me at all.”