Tim Scott’s 2024 Gamble

His listening tour tests whether Republican primary voters would value inspiration over sharp elbows.

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Sen. Tim Scott delivers remarks at the Charleston County Republican Party’s Black History Month banquet February 16, 2023, in Charleston, South Carolina. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

CHARLESTON, S.C.—Sen. Tim Scott is testing the market for happy warriors in the Republican Party, planning a possible presidential bid rooted in the premise America already is great.

“The story of America is defined by our redemption,” Scott said during a keynote address Thursday at the Charleston County Republican Party’s fifth annual Black History Month gala. “If we the people stand up and command our country and our government, I believe the next American century starts here. It starts now. It starts with you.”

The speech, before a packed ballroom of approximately 250 people on the campus of The Citadel, marked the beginning of the South Carolina Republican’s political experiment and kicked off his “Faith in America” listening tour. Next stop, Iowa.

Scott is headed to Des Moines Wednesday to see how this message plays with grassroots conservatives in the state that hosts the first nominating contest on the GOP’s 2024 calendar. The senator has started building a political team there ahead of the caucuses. His footprint likewise is growing in South Carolina, whose primary, the first in the heavily Republican South, comes after only Iowa and New Hampshire in the party’s voting order.

Scott, 57, is currently looking into hiring national political consultants and has been calling wealthy GOP donors to gauge their interest in a potential White House bid. Earlier this month, he mingled with NFL team owners at Super Bowl LVII. Tech mogul Larry Ellison already is pumping tens of millions of dollars into a Scott-aligned super PAC. 

The senator’s Charleston address—delivered the day after former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley joined former President Donald Trump in the Republican primary—centered around his rags-to-political-riches story. Aimless early in life after being raised in poverty by a single mother, Scott eventually graduated from college and started a small insurance firm. He was elected to the Charleston County Council before rising through the ranks of state and federal politics. 

Haley appointed the black Republican and North Charleston native to fill a vacant Senate seat in 2013. Last year, Scott was reelected with an overwhelming 63 percent of the vote.

The tone of the senator’s 25-minute speech was largely positive, focusing on unifying themes like economic empowerment, racial equality, public safety, support for the military and improving public education. Scott also celebrated “the goodness” of a United States “not defined by our original sin” of slavery and racism, adding that “the future is incredibly bright.” 

But his remarks were not all rosy. Scott complained about overspending in Washington and acknowledged many Americans are struggling because of high inflation and unaffordable gas prices. He blamed President Joe Biden and the Democrats, albeit indirectly.

“People want you to believe what they say, in spite of what you see. They want you to believe that all things economically are perfect,” Scott argued, echoing a common GOP gripe that Biden is purposely mischaracterizing the state of the economy. People were better off, he said, in 2017 and 2018, when Republicans controlled the White House and the Congress: “We brought a single mama’s taxes—like the one that raised me—down by over 70 percent.”

Even with these jabs at the Democrats, Scott’s brand of politics stands out as a sunny throwback to the pre-Trump era—that is, remarkably inoffensive compared with the culturally conservative populist pugilism practiced by the 45th president and another leading contender for the Republican nomination, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Since at least 2015, it’s Trump and candidates like him who have captured the imagination of the GOP base and dominated the party.  

Scott might face a certain other hurdle. 

Americans are not in the habit of sending bachelors to the White House. Ditto those with no children. President James Buchanan, a Democrat elected in 1856, is the only lifelong bachelor to hold the office. Meanwhile, just five commanders in chief have been childless, the last one being President Warren G. Harding, a Republican, elected in 1920. Scott fits both categories.

Many Scott supporters in South Carolina are convinced he can make headway in the race anyway. They don’t just plan to back the senator if he runs for president; they are actively encouraging him to mount a campaign. 

“He could do the job,” said Keith Waring, 67, a financial advisor who has known Scott for several years and showed up Thursday to hear him speak.

Karen Jones, a 53-year-old educator also in the audience, said she would “definitely” like Scott to join the race and would support him. “It was very inspiring,” Jones added. “It made me feel like I have a sense of hope now.”

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  1. Jnmccollum66

    I confess to knowing very little about Senator Scott but, based on this alone, I would give him serious consideration.

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    Barry Alexander

    From the right, "Make America Great Again" and Flight 93 elections. From the left, decades of bottomless guilt. Mr. Scott has a message I could get behind.

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  3. Cliff Puckett

    But isn't the critical question, whether Fox News pushes inspiration over sharp elbows?

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  4. Hartzlk

    His cotton-to-Congress speech in 2020 at the... GOP convention (? Sorry, I don't remember the titles of these events) was the first time I heard Tim Scott speak. It was a great speech, and now I take notice when I hear his name.

    (In case any Tim Scott staff read this looking for independent voters.) Please, Tim, don't be Trump's VP. If Pence is any indication, you would hate it and Trump would end up hating and smearing you more than if you had never worked together that closely.

    Other than that, the candidate I vote for has to voice strong support for Ukraine. Key issue. Be prepared, candidates. Wishy-washy answers will mean instant disqualification.

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    Loganrjudy

    I like the happy warrior peg quite a bit.

    But sadly, I think anger sells better

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  6. Raincheck

    Republicans have a weakness for black men who are conservative and who tell them America is great. I think his message has a chance to be more well received than most people think. Republicans embraced Herman Cain and Ben Carson before it became clear that selling pizza and doing surgery hadn’t prepared them for the job.

    Tim Scott, race aside, is a very successful man. Rags to riches, and experienced in the political arena. He is smart and his policy positions are thought through. If he can get his foot in the door the way Cain and Carson did he may be able to actually get into the room and challenge for the nomination.

    And the country needs a happy warrior, badly.

    He is still a long shot, but not an impossible one.

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    Scarlette Tarte

    There is no doubt Scott is qualified. His policies are not mine and I could certainly fight his policy points.

    But he will not be elected in the primary. There would be a whisper campaign, and it would be brutal, revealing the anti LGBTQ biases of the Republican base.

    And the gays would go after him for not being "out". There would be no real discussion if he was actually gay or not and if that mattered and why...just brutal back and forth. Race would come into it, but not nearly as strongly as the whisper campaign. The other Republican candidates may even find someone that would say he had a homosexual relationship with him.

    Tim Scott supposedly had a fiance in the past, but broke it off with her so he could "take care of his mama". He has expressed a desire to have children.

    There is too much there to plant doubts in the mind of Republican voters.

    I hate that. I hate that somebody's sexuality still matters so much to people.

    And if the whisper campaign doesn't do him in, Trump will just flat out say it, truth or feelings be damned.

    I would not vote for him...but he doesn't deserve what's coming.

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    1. Clisbyw

      I live in SC, and I 100% agree. This is one (certainly not the only) reason Lindsey Graham was never going to win the Republican primary. And, sadly, it's not just among Republicans. I've quit being surprised at the number of so-called "progressives" I see criticizing "Ms. Lindsey." It's not like there aren't about a gazillion legit reasons to criticize him.

      Now, I think Tim Scott is pretty much a lightweight, but I'd definitely rate him higher than Donald Trump.

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      1. BSamuel

        “ Now, I think Tim Scott is pretty much a lightweight, but I'd definitely rate him higher than Donald Trump.”

        Yeah, that’s a good description. He seems like a decent enough guy but never has blown me away as a “wow, this guy is super sharp and can manage a White House and any issues that get thrown his way” type of guy.

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        Scarlette Tarte

        The Dems don't criticize him for being gay...they criticize him for not being "true to himself and out".

        But it's a difference really, without a distinction...his sexuality and how he chooses to present himself should not matter. It should not matter if a trans is running for office. The only thing that should matter is their policy prescriptions and their job experience.

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  8. Mary Stine

    I predict that the circular firing squad of Republican candidates is going to cripple all of them, except possibly people like Tim Scott or Larry Hogan. I look forward to Liz Cheney announcing as an Independent.
    I am extremely tired of constant criticism of decent people by the indecent. I don't want to hear anything from Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Green, Jim Jordan etc. And that's just the Republicans. I need to go rest up, then make a large pot of coffee to start dealing with Dems I don't want to hear from....

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    Lchrisberg

    Tim seems like an acceptable candidate, but he needs to address the 4 biggest issues of the day.
    First, there needs to be a national program to give every parent a voucher to educate their child if their State does not do so. Make sure the State gets the bill.
    Second, the censorship and coercion from the New Hitler Youth on college campuses needs to be brought under control.
    Third, a long term Cold War strategy must be devised to contain China.
    Finally, we need to address entitlements and get our financial house in order.
    None of those is easy, but unless a candidate has a viable plan to address those, he/she won't get my vote, cash, or support.

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    1. Clisbyw

      1) A voucher in every pot: Nope. This is none of the federal government's business.
      2) College campuses: Nope. Not the federal government's business.

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        Lchrisberg

        "A voucher in every pot: Nope. This is none of the federal government's business."
        Everyone has an opinion, I guess. It is not included in the Constitutional restrictions and falls under the broad category of promoting the general welfare so... you lose.
        "College campuses: Nope. Not the federal government's business."
        Wrong. Google "Federal Student Aid". You want to accept loans, ensure constitutional guarantees such as Free Speech.

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  10. Jack H Wolf

    I think the message 'America is Great' is perfect. It contrasts with the Republican populists MAGA theme which implies that we were once great (which allows one to ignore all the racism etc. of the past) and therefore, are no longer great, and thus supports the torch and pitchfork crowd who are willing to burn it down to return to the Elysian fields of 1950, and equally contrasts with the left race obsessives who pretend that nothing good has happened in the last 60 years in civil rights and we need to spend our time repenting our past sins.
    It is the patriotism of gratitude for our Constitutional democracy that Trump wants to destroy and the Dems want to deride.
    Scott is kind of the Obama of the Republicans. Not just that he is an African American but that he has a positive message and isn't about just hating liberals which seems to have taken over as the main course on the right since Limbaugh overtook Buckley Jr. and everybody who didnt go with the orthodoxy was RINO'd out of the party.
    Also Tim Scott threaded the needle of being willing to take it to Trump (Charlottesville, election denial) without going full Cheney and provoking the Trumpers. In that he appears as less of an ass kisser than Haley or Pence or even DeSantis who as much as he might appear the Trump alternative, has yet to acknowledge who won the 2020 election and when asked, just dodges.
    Now, the issue is that the more candidates, and good candidates like Scott who enter, the more it advantages Trump who can easily win with as low as 30% if the rest of the field is divided. The only way of avoiding this would be for candidates to selectively choose the states they want to run with only one strong candidate opposing Trump. That will be hard to do, Otherwise they will cancel each other out.

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