Former President Trump on Monday welcomed Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) to the 2024 Republican presidential primary, using Scott’s move as a means to target Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“Good luck to Senator Tim Scott in entering the Republican Presidential Primary Race,” Trump wrote on Truth Social moments after Scott’s announcement on Monday. “It is rapidly loading up with lots of people, and Tim is a big step up” from DeSantis, he said.
Trump, who was not critical of Scott, added that he and Scott worked together to come up with the Opportunity Zone program, an idea that was included in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. And Scott has remained largely uncritical of Trump over the past several years, though he has said on different occasions that the former president should have apologized for what he described as racist statements.
During his speech on Monday, Scott didn’t mention Trump or any other declared or undeclared 2024 candidates. Instead, he attempted to paint himself as an optimist who could get things done and criticized President Joe Biden and his agenda.
“I’m the candidate the far-left fears the most,” Scott told supporters in his home state of South Carolina on Monday. “When I cut your taxes, they called me a prop. When I re-funded the police, they called me a token. When I pushed back on President Biden, they even called me the n-word. I disrupt their narrative. I threaten their control. The truth of my life disproves their lies.”
He also said of Biden: “This administration has taxed, borrowed, and spent trillions of dollars trying to replace a hand up with handouts. All they bought us was crushing inflation that has devastated families like mine.”
Scott appears to have the support of several top donors, according a number of reports, as well as members of the Republican Senate leadership. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), the No. 2 Republican in the upper chamber, appeared at Scott’s event and delivered a statement that “our country is ready to be inspired again.”
When he was appointed to the Senate in 2013 by then-Gov. Nikki Haley, Scott became the first black senator from the South since just after the Civil War. Winning a 2014 special election to serve out the remainder of his term made him the first black candidate to win a statewide race in South Carolina in more than a century.
He has long said his current term, which runs through 2029, would be his last. Scott has also routinely repudiated the teaching of critical race theory, a quasi-Marxist academic framework that presents the idea that the nation’s institutions need to be purged of white people.
“Today, I’m living proof that America is the land of opportunity and not a land of oppression,” he said Monday.
A source of strength for Scott will be his campaign bank account. He enters the 2024 race with more cash on hand than any other presidential candidate in U.S. history, with $22 million left in his campaign account at the end of his 2022 campaign that he can transfer to his presidential coffers, according to The Associated Press.
Scott also won reelection in firmly Republican South Carolina, which has an early slot on the Republican presidential primary calendar, by more than 20 points less than six months ago. Advisers told AP they bet that can make Scott a serious contender for an early, momentum-generating win.
But Scott is not the only South Carolina option. The state’s former governor, Haley, who once served as Trump’s former United Nations ambassador, is also running.
Meanwhile, the senator will have to find a way to stand out in a GOP field that also includes businessman and “Woke, Inc.” author Vivek Ramaswamy. Several other candidates, including former Vice President Mike Pence and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, may also enter the race in the coming weeks.
As for DeSantis, the Florida governor has not officially declared his candidacy but reports indicate that he will do so in the coming days. Trump has often criticized DeSantis, who polls show is No. 2 behind the former president in a slate of opinion polls, although the governor won his reelection bid by more than 20 points last November.
On Monday, DeSantis did not issue a public response to Trump or to Scott’s 2024 announcement.
Trump may not be focusing on Scott because recent polls have shown the South Carolina senator is trailing both him and DeSantis by wide margins. A RealClearPolitics aggregate of polls shows that as of Monday, Scott has 1.8 percent support, Ramaswamy has 3.6 percent, Haley has 4.8 percent, Pence has 5.6 percent, DeSantis has 19.4 percent, and Trump has 56.3 percent.
The Democratic National Committee responded to Scott’s announcement by dismissing the notion that Scott offers much of an alternative to Trump’s policies. DNC chair Jamie Harrison, who ran unsuccessfully for Senate in South Carolina in 2020, released a statement calling the senator “a fierce advocate of the MAGA agenda,” a reference to the former president’s “Make America Great Again” movement.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
