Senator Tim Scott, who represents South Carolina in the upper house of Congress, has officially entered the presidential race.
The only black Republican in the Senate, he has filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission announcing his intention to seek the party’s nomination in the 2024 election.
A deeply religious 57-year-old former insurance broker, Scott based his political identity on his grandfather’s work in the cotton fields of the American South. However, he rejects the idea that racism remains a powerful force in society, and he presents his candidacy and freedom from poverty, betrayed from generation to generation, as a dream come true, possible only in America.
He plans to launch the campaign Monday in his hometown of North Charleston. Its first ads will begin airing in Iowa and New Hampshire, the first states to hold primaries, next week.
Scott tries to focus on promising topics and avoid divisive language in order to distance himself from the grievance-based politics favored by Republicans like former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. The latter has not yet announced the start of his campaign, but should do so soon.
During a February visit to Iowa, Scott spoke of a “new American dawn” based on collaboration.
“I see a future where common sense recreates common ground, where we create true unity, not by compromising our conservatism, but by converting people to our conservatism,” he said.
However, on the same trip, he spoke out against political correctness in much the same way as Trump and DeSantis.
“If you want a plan to destroy America, keep doing what Joe Biden has let the far left do to our country for the past two years,” he said. “Tell all white children that they are oppressors. Tell black and black children that their destiny is offense, not greatness.
On many issues, Scott and the mainstream Republican Party are aligned. He advocates cutting public spending and limiting abortion, saying if elected president he would sign a federal law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
However, he has pushed the party to act on police reform in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and has at times criticized Trump’s response to racial tensions.
Yet despite their differences, Scott has maintained a generally cordial relationship with Trump, saying in his book that the former president “listened carefully” to his views on racial issues.
If Scott’s campaign is successful, he will become the second black president in the country’s history, after Barack Obama, but the first black Republican president.
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