NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — As he launches his presidential campaign on Monday, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina is formally wading right into a GOP number one struggle already in large part ruled by way of two commanding figures: former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Scott, the one Black Republican senator, will make his campaign announcement in his place of birth of North Charleston after making it respectable final week with the Federal Election Commission. The past due morning tournament is going down at Charleston Southern University, Scott’s alma mater and a personal college affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.
Then he’s going to spend Tuesday with donors in Charleston earlier than a whirlwind, two-day campaign swing to Iowa and New Hampshire.
Like others within the GOP race, together with former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and “Woke, Inc.” creator Vivek Ramaswamy, Scott can have to have the opportunity to stand out in a box led by way of Trump and DeSantis, the latter of whom may announce his personal bid as early as this week.
But Scott’s senior advisers notice that political environments can shift over the path of a number one campaign, pointing to early within the 2016 race when Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and previous Florida Gov. Jeb Bush had been observed as the highest GOP applicants earlier than Trump become the birthday party’s nominee.
One manner Scott, 57, hopes to make his mark is by way of leaning into extra positive rhetoric than his conservative opponents. With his Christian religion a vital part of his political and private tale, Scott ceaselessly quotes Scripture at his campaign occasions, weaving his reliance on religious steerage into his stump speech or even bestowing the identify “Faith in America” on his pre-launch listening excursion.
In phrases of Scott’s political energy, his group issues to his most up-to-date Senate reelection in November, when Scott defeated his Democratic opponent by way of greater than 20 share issues. Such overwhelming strengthen in a state that votes early within the GOP’s presidential nominating calendar bodes smartly for Scott’s electability on a bigger scale, his advisers say.
There’s additionally the subject of cash. He will input the 2024 race with more money readily available than every other presidential candidate in U.S. historical past. He had $22 million left in his campaign checking account on the finish of his 2022 campaign and plans to instantly switch that to his presidential coffers.
It’s sufficient cash, his group says, to stay Scott at the air with steady TV commercials in early balloting states till the primary spherical of votes subsequent yr.
On many problems, Scott aligns with mainstream GOP positions. He desires to cut back executive spending and prohibit abortion, announcing he would signal a federal legislation to restrict abortions after 15 weeks of being pregnant if elected president.
But Scott has driven the birthday party on some policing overhaul measures for the reason that killing of George Floyd, and he has every now and then criticized Trump’s reaction to racial tensions. Throughout their disagreements, even though, Scott has maintained a usually cordial dating with Trump, announcing in his e-book that the previous president “listened intently” to his viewpoints on race-related problems.
When he used to be appointed to the Senate by way of then-Gov. Nikki Haley in 2012, Scott become the primary Black senator from the South since simply after the Civil War. Winning a 2014 particular election to serve out the remaining of his time period made him the primary Black candidate to win a statewide race in South Carolina for the reason that Reconstruction technology.
He has lengthy mentioned his present time period, which runs via 2029, can be his final.
Scott rejects the perception that the rustic is inherently racist and has repudiated the educating of vital race principle, an educational framework that gifts the concept the country’s establishments deal with the dominance of white other people.
“Hear me clearly: America is not a racist country,” Scott has mentioned. “It’s backwards to fight discrimination with different types of discrimination. And it’s wrong to try to use our painful past to dishonestly shut down debates in the present.”
If Scott is a success, he will be the first Black individual to win the Republican presidential nomination and the second one elected to the presidency, following Barack Obama in 2008.
In a video pronouncing his exploratory committee previous this yr, Scott situated himself because the antidote to the “radical left: a self-made success story as the son of a single mother who overcame poverty. He also bemoaned Democratic leaders as needlessly dividing the country by fostering a “culture of grievance.”
Other Republicans are nonetheless deciding whether or not to wade into the presidential race, together with former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez.
President Joe Biden is looking for reelection, a choice that has in large part cleared the Democratic box.
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Meg Kinnard can also be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP
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