Tim Scott joins the 2024 Republican race for president

Sen. Tim Scott, who grew up in working-class poverty to change into South Carolina’s first Black senator, and now the Senate’s lone Black Republican, declared his candidacy for president on Monday, entering the 2024 race with extra money readily available than all of his competition — and a tale that he says embodies the American dream.

The 57-year-old senator held the legit announcement tournament inside of the Buccaneer Fieldhouse on Monday morning at his alma mater, Charleston Southern University, talking enthusiastically in entrance of a backdrop of supporters, his identify and marketing campaign slogan, “Faith in America.”

“We live in the land where it is possible for a kid raised in poverty by a single mother in a small apartment to one day serve in the People’s House and maybe even the White House,” Scott stated, after talking a number of mins off the cuff.

“Joe Biden and the radical left are attacking every rung of the ladder that helped me climb,” he persevered. “And that is why I’m announcing today that I am running for president of the United States of America!”

“When I cut your taxes, they called me a prop. When I re-funded the police, they called me a token. When I pushed back on President Biden, they even called me the N-word,” he stated. “I disrupt their narrative. I threaten their control. The truth of my life disrupts their lies!”

Scott on Friday filed legit forms with the Federal Election Commission to go into the race, atmosphere into movement a $6 million ad-buy in Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two states of the Republican nominating contest, which can air beginning Wednesday and run thru the first GOP number one debate in overdue August.

Choosing to tackle the present president versus any number one warring parties, Scott introduced an outlook extra certain than others to claim “America is not a nation in decline,” however underneath President Joe Biden, he says, it has change into “a nation in retreat.”

“America is the city on the hill,” Scott stated in ultimate, strolling off the level to enroll in status supporters, as he has a tendency to do on the stump. “I’m living proof that God and a good family and the United States of America can do all things if we believe. Will you believe it with me?”

Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, counseled Scott and delivered the opening prayer at his announcement in North Charleston, describing him as a candidate who gives “boundless hope and optimism for this country.”

“Tim Scott is the real deal. And he will make a great president of the United States,” Thune stated. “I think our country is ready to be inspired again.”

Scott will shuttle to Iowa and Hampshire later this week, including to a handful of visits he is already made this 12 months. His legit marketing campaign committee, Tim Scott for America, will probably be primarily based in the Palmetto State, the place he’s going to go back for Memorial Day weekend.

While he’s polling in the low single digits, primary donors, together with Oracle founder Larry Ellison, are banking on the senator’s constructive disposition breaking thru — and permitting him to overhaul former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, each forward of him in voter surveys.

Scott’s marketing campaign has touted his becoming a member of the race with $22 million in marketing campaign money, which it says is the maximum of any presidential candidate in American historical past.

The legit marketing campaign release follows a season of relationship electorate together with his “Faith in America” the town corridor sequence after forming a presidential exploratory committee, a step which permits for applicants to begin elevating cash. Staffers say his marketing campaign for president in reality got here to mild after he received 63% of the vote in his reelection to the Senate in November, in spite of an increasingly more polarizing local weather.

The junior senator rolled out his exploratory committee on April 12, which he famous marked the anniversary of the starting of the Civil War. His announcement video used to be filmed at Fort Sumter, the place he as soon as once more referred to as for Americans to triumph over deep political divisions.

A supply with regards to Scott stated he had no longer spoken to Trump forward of his announcement. The two proportion a cordial dating, however Scott sparingly condemned Trump all the way through his presidency for racially-charged feedback, comparable to after Trump expressed beef up for the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Scott replied, “Racism is real. It is alive.”

Scott has declined to mention whether or not he would beef up Trump if Trump have been to win the GOP nomination, whilst Trump’s group has painted the number one as a race for 2nd position.

“Tim Scott’s entrance, and aggressive media purchase, doesn’t only kneecap DeSantis, but Scott sees the same thing as Youngkin, Sununu, Burgum, Christie and others: the path to 2nd place is wide open,” stated Taylor Budowich, CEO of the Trump-aligned Make America Great Again Inc. PAC. “They smell Ron DeSantis’ blood in the water and no longer see him as an obstacle.”

Scott’s non-public tale

Not handiest is Scott entering the race with a heft of money readily available, however his marketing campaign additionally says he brings a special non-public tale to the race.

Scott credit his mom who he says labored 16-hour days as a nursing assistant to beef up him, and a Chick-fil-A shop operator, who helped Scott get his first process at a film theater in his teenagers, with enabling him to pave a trail from working-class poverty to the U.S. Senate.

“Those 16-hour days put food on our table. And kept our lights on. They empowered her to move her boys out of a place filled with anger into a home full of love,” Scott stated Monday, after bringing her on level to thank her for her beef up.

He additionally cites his enjoy at South Carolina’s Palmetto Boys State program as influential in his determination to pursue public carrier. After operating in insurance coverage and fiscal services and products post-college, Scott ran for Charleston County Council and the South Carolina House of Representatives.

Scott used to be first appointed to the Senate in 2013, plucked from the U.S. House of Representatives by way of then-South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley — who he will now face in the number one. This after every other senator, Jim DeMint, resigned to steer the Heritage Foundation. Scott retained his seat in a 2014 particular election and glided to victory once more in 2016 and 2022, with greater than 60% of the vote in each cycles.

Long observed as a emerging celebrity in the GOP, Scott delivered the Republican Party’s rebuttal to President Joe Biden’s inaugural joint cope with to Congress in 2021.

Scott’s signature law growing “opportunity zones” used to be handed as a part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act underneath Trump. He used to be tapped in 2020 by way of Republican leaders to barter on police-reforms prior to the ones bipartisan talks collapsed.

He’s beginning off his marketing campaign with a couple of colleagues’ endorsements, with South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds becoming a member of Thune. Fellow South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is amongst 11 Senate Republicans already endorsing Trump, even though again in 2016 he infamously stated, “If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed … and we will deserve it.”

Scott joins a number one box that incorporates Haley, Trump, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Others are anticipated to formally input in the coming days, together with DeSantis and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.

Scott closed his speech with a number of, “Let’s go!” call-and-response chants with supporters.