NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — As Sen. Tim Scott enters the 2024 GOP presidential discipline, he shall be desirous to introduce himself to voters who may not know a lot about him.

Here are 5 issues to know in regards to the South Carolina Republican:

FOREMOST: FAITH

Raised by a single mom, Scott, 57, talks typically of how Frances Scott labored lengthy hours as a nurse’s assistant to offer for her two sons. It was a meager existence, the senator mentioned, nevertheless it was centered round their robust Christian religion.

At age 18, Scott turned what he phrases a “born-again believer.”

His religion is an integral a part of his political and private narrative, in addition to his perception in being a optimistic catalyst for change. He typically quotes Scripture at marketing campaign occasions, weaving his reliance on religious steering into his stump speech and utilizing “Faith in America” to explain his collection of appearances earlier than becoming a member of the race.

Last 12 months in a speech on the Reagan Presidential Library, Scott mentioned he noticed America “at a crossroads - with the potential for a great resetting, a renewal, even a rebirth.” His autobiography, launched final 12 months, is titled “America: A Redemption Story.”

When his now-rival Nikki Haley appointed him to the U.S. Senate in 2012, Scott turned the primary Black senator from the South since simply after the Civil War. In a 2014 particular election to serve out the rest of his time period, Scott turned the primary Black candidate to win a statewide race in South Carolina because the Reconstruction period.

Before that, Scott had simply been elected to his second time period representing South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District. He served a single time period within the state House, in addition to, starting in 1995, practically 14 years on the Charleston County Council, whereas additionally working an insurance coverage enterprise. He additionally briefly ran for lieutenant governor, in the end abandoning that pursuit to hunt the congressional seat vacated by retiring Rep. Henry Brown.

At that point, South Carolina’s governor and lieutenant governor have been elected individually; had Scott stayed in that race and gained it, he and Haley would have served collectively as South Carolina’s prime officeholders.

‘I DISRUPT THEIR NARRATIVE’

The Senate’s sole Black Republican, Scott doesn’t shrink back from mentioning that his is commonly the one face of colour in lots of rooms of conservatives.

“When I fought back against their liberal agenda, they called me a prop. A token. Because I disrupt their narrative,” he mentioned in an April video asserting his presidential exploratory committee, shot on the location of Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, the place the Civil War’s first photographs have been fired.

In his Reagan Library speech final 12 months, Scott mentioned that perception in conservative values had modified his life, arguing that his capacity to achieve politics had disproven critiques from liberals he mentioned “you can call me a prop, you can call me a token. … Just understand what you call me is no match for the proof of my life.”

Rejecting the notion that the nation is inherently racist, Scott has repudiated the instructing of vital race concept, an instructional framework that presents the concept the nation’s establishments preserve the dominance of white individuals.

He has additionally spoken on the Senate ground about his private experiences as a Black man in America.

“I have felt the anger, the frustration, the sadness and the humiliation that comes with feeling like you’re being targeted for nothing more than just being yourself,” Scott mentioned in 2016, recounting how he was pulled over seven occasions in a 12 months.

But Scott argues that liberals have tried to weaponize race by portraying nonwhite residents as politically oppressed.

“Hear me clearly: America is not a racist country,” he mentioned in a nationally televised response to President Joe Biden’s 2021 tackle to Congress. “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.”

MONEY TALKS

Scott is coming into the marketing campaign with more money readily available than another presidential candidate in U.S. historical past. At the top of his 2022 marketing campaign, he had $22 million left over, which he plans to instantly switch to his presidential coffers.

There are thousands and thousands extra in different organizations created to assist Scott and his efforts. Opportunity Matters Fund, a pro-Scott tremendous political motion committee, spent greater than $20 million to assist Republicans in 2022, reporting $13 million-plus readily available to start out 2023. Tech billionaire Larry Ellison has donated at the very least $30 million to the group since 2021, in line with federal filings.

Another tremendous PAC, Opportunity Matters Fund Action, had round $3 million on the finish of final 12 months.

HISTORY WITH TRUMP

Scott has maintained a usually cordial relationship with Trump, regardless of initially endorsing Florida Sen. Marco Rubio within the 2016 GOP presidential major.

But he additionally spoke out towards Trump after the then-president mentioned there have been “very fine people on both sides” of a lethal conflict between white supremacists and anti-racist demonstrators in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. Scott mentioned that Trump’s rules had been compromised and that with out some introspection, “it will be hard for him to regain … moral authority.”

Scott additionally referred to as it “indefensible” after Trump retweeted a publish in June 2020 containing a racist slogan related to white supremacists. Trump later deleted it.

In his 2022 guide, Scott mentioned that Trump “listened intently” to his viewpoints on race-related points. And on the marketing campaign path, Scott has railed towards political correctness in a lot the identical trend as Trump.

“If you wanted a blueprint to ruin America, you’d keep doing exactly what Joe Biden has let the far left do to our country for the past two years,” Scott mentioned this 12 months in Iowa. “Tell every white kid they’re oppressors. Tell Black and brown kids their destiny is grievance, not greatness.”

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