South Carolina Senator Tim Scott launched his presidential campaign on Monday, offering an optimistic and compassionate message that he hopes will serve as a contrast

Unpleasant

the political belligerence that dominated the early GOP primary field.

Scott, the Senate’s only black Republican, kicked off the campaign in his hometown of North Charleston, on the campus of Charleston Southern University, his alma mater and a private school affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. He repeatedly mentioned his Christian faith in his kick-off speech, shouting, Amen! Amen! Amen! and at various points elicited reactions from the crowd, who sometimes chanted his name.

But Scott also offered a strong political choice, saying that our party and our nation are at a time to choose: victimization or victory. He added that Republicans will also have to choose between “complaint or grandeur.”

I choose freedom and hope and opportunity, Scott said. He then told the crowd that we need a president who not only convinces our friends and base, but who seeks common sense solutions and shows compassion for those who disagree with us.

That was a far cry from former President Trump, who has played the GOP’s most loyal supporters with repeated lies about his 2020 election loss while campaigning for a second term. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who could launch his own bid this week, has pushed Florida to the right by calling for controversial new restrictions on abortion and LGBTQ

+

rights and by attempting to limit Disney’s corporate power, one of the state’s most powerful corporate interests.

Scott, 57, planned to assemble Tuesday with donors from the home state and then begin a two-day campaign to Iowa and New Hampshire, which rank first on the GOP’s presidential voting calendar.

Republican Senator Tim Scott makes it official: he’s running for president

His announcement event included an opening prayer by South Dakota Senator John Thune, the No. 2 Senate Republican, who said, I think our country is ready to be inspired again. South Dakota’s other senator, Republican Senator Mike Rounds, has already announced his support for Scott.

A number of high-profile GOP senators have supported Trump’s third bid for the White House, including Scott’s South Carolina colleague Lindsey Graham. Nevertheless, Trump struck a conciliatory tone on Monday, welcoming Scott into the race and noting that the pair were working together on the tax cuts signed by his administration.

A source of strength for Scott will be his campaign bank account. He goes into the 2024 race with more cash than any other presidential candidate in U.S. history, with $22 million in his campaign account at the end of his 2022 campaign that he can transfer to his presidential coffers.

Scott also won re-election in staunchly Republican South Carolina, which is less than 20 points ahead of the Republican presidential primary calendar by more than 20 points less than six months ago. advice

O

rs bet that can make Scott a serious contender for an early, momentum-generating win.

But Scott isn’t the only option in South Carolina. The state’s former governor, Nikki Haley, who was once Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations, is also running.

Ben LeVan, a business professor at Charleston Southern who attended Monday’s event, said he hadn’t decided who to support in the GOP primary, but he had no intention of supporting Trump.

DeSantis wants to “make America Florida.” That could mean that there are many more uninsured people

I really hope we can bring some civility back into politics, LeVan said. That’s one of the nice things about Tim Scott, and frankly about Nikki Haley and some of the other candidates as well. They are more diplomatic, and I appreciate that.

Like others in the GOP race, including the former governor of Arkansas. Asa Hutchinson and Woke, Inc. author Vivek Ramaswamy, Scott’s first task will be to find a way to stand out in a field led by Trump and DeSantis.

One way Scott hopes to do that is through his trademark political optimism. Scott often quotes scripture at his campaign events, weaving his reliance on spiritual guidance into his speeches

other

his travels call for the campaign’s official launch

,

the Faith in America listening tour.

Scott said Monday that America’s promise means you can go as high as our character, determination and talent will take you.”

The Democratic National Committee responded to Scott’s announcement by rejecting the idea that Scott offers a major alternative to Trump’s policies. DNC Chairman Jamie Harrison, who unsuccessfully ran for the South Carolina state senate in 2020, released a statement calling the senator a fierce advocate of the MAGA agenda, a reference to the Make America Great Again movement of the former president.

Indeed, on many counts, Scott aligns 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 Scott has pushed the party into some police overhauls since George Floyd’s assassination, and he has occasionally criticized Trump’s response to racial tensions. Throughout their disagreements, however, Scott has maintained a generally cordial relationship with Trump, saying in his book that the former president listened carefully to his views on race-related issues.

When he was appointed to the Senate by then-Governor Haley in 2012, 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 since the Reconstruction era.

Hi there

long

said his current term, which runs until 2029, would be his last.

Scott has long rejected the idea that the country is inherently racist. He has also routinely rejected the teachings of critical race theory, an academic framework that presents the idea that national institutions perpetuate white dominance.

Today I am living proof that America is the land of opportunity and not of oppression, he said Monday.