Tim Scott Announces Presidential Exploratory Committee for 2024
Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the most prominent Black leader in the Republican Party, started an exploratory committee for a 2024 presidential run on Wednesday.
During a Wednesday morning interview with Fox and Friends detailing his announcement, Mr. Scott said his decision to form the committee was born out of the weeks he has spent touring early primary states, including Iowa, New Hampshire and his home state, South Carolina.
“I have found that people are starving for hope. They’re starving for an optimistic, positive message that is anchored in conservative values,” he said.
The announcement, which was first reported by The Post and Courier of Charleston, S.C., opens an all-but-declared presidential campaign for Mr. Scott. An exploratory committee will allow the senator, who would enter the Republican primary with nearly $21.8 million on hand in his Senate account, to raise money directly for a 2024 campaign and garner more national attention before a formal presidential announcement. He will host a donor retreat in Charleston this weekend, where he is expected to update his top donors on his plans.
Allies have already established a super PAC that is expected to be supportive of Mr. Scott, should he make his run official. Last week, the PAC announced that it was expanding through the hiring of two veteran South Carolina political operatives, Matt Moore and Mark Knoop.
Who’s Running for President in 2024?
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The race begins. Four years after a historically large number of candidates ran for president, the field for the 2024 campaign is starting out small and is likely to be headlined by the same two men who ran last time: President Biden and Donald Trump. Here’s who has entered the race so far, and who else might run:
Donald Trump. The former president is running to retake the office he lost in 2020. Though somewhat diminished in influence within the Republican Party — and facing several legal investigations — he retains a large and committed base of supporters, and he could be aided in the primary by multiple challengers splitting a limited anti-Trump vote.
Asa Hutchinson. The former governor of Arkansas is one of a relatively small number of Republicans who have been openly critical of Trump. Hutchinson has denounced the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and said Trump should drop out of the presidential race.
Marianne Williamson. The self-help author and former spiritual adviser to Oprah Winfrey is running for a second time. In her 2020 campaign, the Democrat called for a federal Department of Peace, supported reparations for slavery and called Trumpism a symptom of an illness in the American psyche that could not be cured with political policies.
Mr. Scott also teased his plans to run in a fund-raising email to supporters on Tuesday evening, saying he would soon make “a major announcement.” On Wednesday, he released a three-minute video online outlining his personal story and political ambitions.
“I know America is a land of opportunity, not a land of oppression. I know it because I lived it,” he said, criticizing Mr. Biden’s administration. “I will never back down in defense of the conservative values that make America exceptional.”
Mr. Scott, who will campaign in Iowa on Wednesday, in New Hampshire on Thursday and in South Carolina on Friday, is expected to heavily emphasize his only-in-America rise, a story he first told on the national stage at the 2020 Republican National Convention.
“Our family went from cotton to Congress in one lifetime,” Mr. Scott said. “And that’s why I believe the next American century can be better than the last.” In 2021, he was tapped to deliver the Republican response to President Biden’s first joint address before Congress, a speech that turbocharged Mr. Scott’s online fund-raising.
It is that personal story that he believes will resonate most with voters, he told Fox News on Wednesday. Asked if that would be enough to beat former President Donald J. Trump, who maintains a sizable lead in the Republican presidential primary, Mr. Scott pivoted to criticism of national Democrats.
“The field of play is focusing on President Biden’s failures,” he said, and later added, “I believe we give the voters a choice so that they can decide how we move forward as opposed to trying to have a conversation about how to be a Republican. I think we’re better off having that conversation about beating Joe Biden.”
Mr. Scott’s biography, his oratorical skills and his prominence as the top-ranking Black Republican in Congress have him on many Republican short lists to serve as a potential vice president, though advisers to Mr. Scott have rebuffed that as the goal.
If and when Mr. Scott officially enters the race, he will be the second South Carolina Republican in the 2024 sweepstakes, following the entry of Nikki Haley, the former governor and former United Nations ambassador. He also joins an increasingly crowded primary field for president: Former President Donald J. Trump, former Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas and the tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy have all begun campaigns. Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida is expected to join the field in the coming months.
