South Carolina Senator Tim Scott made it official on Friday: He wants to run for president.

Scott, the Senate’s only black Republican, filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission stating his intention to nominate his party in 2024. year.

The deeply religious former insurance broker, 57, has made his grandfather’s work in the cotton fields of the Deep South a foundation of his political identity. Still, he rejects the idea that racism remains a powerful force in society, and has portrayed his candidacy and rising out of generational poverty as the realization of a dream only possible in America.

Scott, who formed an exploratory committee last month that would allow him to raise and spend money as he considered a campaign in the White House, has a formal announcement scheduled for Monday at Charleston Southern University, a private Baptist school and Scott’s alma mater, in his hometown of North. Charleston, SC

Scott has already scheduled TV ads to air early next week in Iowa and New Hampshire, the top ad spend of a potential or declared nominee in the early stages of the 2024 nomination campaign.

Scott tries to focus on hopeful themes and avoid divisive language in order to differentiate himself from the grievance-based politics favored by those leading the GOP field, such as former President Trump and Florida governor. Ron DeSantis, who has not yet officially entered the race, but is expected to do so soon.

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The senator refuses to place his life story around the country’s racial inequality. He insists that those who disagree with his views on the matter are trying to weaponize race to divide us, saying: The truth of my life disproves their lies.

During a February visit to Iowa, where the GOP’s first presidential caucuses are being held, Scott spoke of a new American sunrise coming from collaboration.

I see a future where common sense has rebuilt common ground, where we have created real unity not by compromising our conservatism, but by winning converts to our conservatism, he said.

But Scott has his limits. During that same trip, he railed against political correctness in much the same way as Trump and DeSantis.

If you wanted a blueprint to ruin America, you would continue to do exactly what Joe Biden has had the far left do to our country for the past two years, he said. Tell every white boy they are oppressors. Tell black and brown kids that their lot is grievances, not grandiosity.

Scott often speaks of his hard scrabble roots. He was raised by a single mother who worked long hours as a nursing aide to care for him and his brother after her divorce from their father. Scott, who describes himself as a bland student, graduated from Charleston Southern University with a degree in political science before opening an insurance company.

Scott’s faith is an integral part of his political and personal story. Describing himself as a born-again believer, he often quotes scripture at campaign events, weaving his reliance on spiritual guidance into his speeches and calling his string of political appearances before entering the race “Faith in America.”

On many counts, Scott agrees with mainstream GOP positions. He wants to cut government spending and restrict abortion, and says he will sign a federal bill to ban abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy if elected president.

But since George Floyd’s assassination, he has pushed the party into some police overhauls, and has occasionally criticized Trump’s response to racial tensions. Scott called it indefensible after Trump retweeted a post he later deleted containing a racist slogan associated with white supremacists.

In the days following Trump’s widely criticized response to a 2017 rally of white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, Scott said Trump’s principles had been compromised and it will be difficult for him to regain moral authority without some introspection. .

However, during their disagreements, Scott has maintained a generally cordial relationship with Trump, writing in one of his books that the former president listened carefully to his views on race-related issues.

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A potentially clumsier rival for Scott will be Nikki Haley, Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations, who fueled Scott’s political rise when she was governor of South Carolina and nominated him to the Senate in 2012.

In submitting the seat held by Republican Jim DeMint, Scott became the first black senator from the South since just after the Civil War. In a 2014 special election for the remainder of his term, he became the first black candidate to win a statewide race in South Carolina since the Reconstruction era.

He easily won re-election last year and has long said his current term, which runs until 2029, will be his last in the Senate.

As a senator, Scott was a sought-after Republican voice on the issue of policing, and served as the party’s chief negotiator on law enforcement legislation that ultimately stalled in 2021. He has also spoken on the Senate floor about his personal experiences as a black one in America.

I’ve felt the anger, the frustration, the sadness and the humiliation that comes with feeling like you’re the target of nothing but being yourself, Scott said in 2016, when he counted how the police had killed him seven times in one year times held. He was once stopped by a U.S. Capitol police officer who recognized the Senate lapel pin Scott was wearing, but did not recognize Scott.

But he rejects the idea that the country is inherently racist and has rejected the teachings of critical race theory, an academic framework that presents the idea that national institutions maintain white dominance.

Hear me clearly: America is not a racist country, Scott said. It is backward to fight discrimination with different forms of discrimination. And it is wrong to try to use our painful past to unfairly stifle debates in the present.

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Scott believes parents should be more oversight of what their children learn about race, sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools.

He addressed the Republican National Convention twice in 2012 as a first-term congressman and in 2020 as a senator. At the last GOP convention, he praised Trump for building the most inclusive economy ever and supporting funding for historically black colleges and universities.

Following Biden’s White House victory, Scott was asked to deliver the GOP response to the new president’s first speech to Congress.

Other Republicans in the 2024 race include entrepreneur and Woke, Inc. author Vivek Ramaswamy, former governor of Arkansas. Asa Hutchinson and radio host Larry Elder. DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence and former Governor of New Jersey. Chris Christie is among those expected to announce campaigns soon.

If Scott’s campaign is successful, he will become the first black person to win the Republican presidential nomination and the second black person to be elected president, following the election of Democrat Barack Obama in 2008.

Scott often mentions that his family came to Congress from cotton in one lifetime, a reference to his grandfather dropping out of grade school to pick cotton in the Deep South.