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NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott launched his presidential marketing campaign on Monday, providing an optimistic message he hopes can distinction the 2 figures who’ve used political combativeness to dominate the early GOP major area: former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Scott, the Senate’s solely Black Repubican, made the announcement in his hometown of North Charleston at Southern College, his alma mater and a personal faculty affiliated with the Southern Baptist Conference.
“Our social gathering and our nation are standing at a time for selecting. Victimhood or victory?,” he advised cheering supporters, including, “Grievance or greatness?”
“I select freedom and hope and alternative,” Scott stated, he stated that the GOP wants a candidate who can energize extra than simply its base.
Scott has often denounced Democrats for elevating what he calls false social and political grievances. However providing such sentiments concerning the GOP might be a substitute for Trump, who has for years repeated lies about how he was denied a second time period by widespread fraud that didn’t happen in the course of the 2020 presidential election. DeSantis, in the meantime, has pushed Florida to the suitable by championing contentious new restrictions on abortion, LGBTQ rights and by searching for to restrict the company energy of Disney, one his state’s strongest enterprise pursuits.
Scott, 57, deliberate to huddle with home-state donors after the kickoff occasion, then start a whirlwind, two-day marketing campaign swing to Iowa and New Hampshire, which go first in GOP presidential major voting.
The announcement gathering included a gap prayer by Republican Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Senate Republican, who stated, “I believe our nation is able to be impressed once more.” Republican Sen. Mike Rounds, South Dakota’s different senator, has already introduced his assist for Scott.
A lot of high-profile GOP senators have already backed Trump’s third bid for the White Home, although, together with Scott’s South Carolina colleague, Lindsey Graham. Trump nonetheless struck a conciliatory tone to start out, welcoming Scott to the race in a web based submit Monday and noting that the pair labored collectively on his administration’s signature tax lower.
A supply of power for Scott can be his marketing campaign checking account. He enters the 2024 race with extra cash available than some other presidential candidate in U.S. historical past, with $22 million left in his marketing campaign checking account on the finish of his 2022 marketing campaign that he can switch to his presidential coffers.
It’s sufficient cash, his group says, to maintain Scott on the air with steady TV advertisements in early voting states till the primary spherical of votes subsequent 12 months.
Scott additionally gained reelection in firmly Republican South Carolina — which voters third on the Republican presidential major calendar — by greater than 20 factors lower than six months in the past. Advisors wager that may make Scott a critical contender for an early major victory that would give him momentum heading deeper into the first race.
However Scott shouldn’t be the one South Carolina possibility. The state’s former governor, Nikki Haley, who additionally as soon as served as Trump’s former United Nations ambassador, formally entered the first race months in the past.
Like others within the GOP race, together with former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and “Woke, Inc.” creator Vivek Ramaswamy, Scott’s early activity can be discovering a technique to stand out in a area led by Trump and DeSantis, the latter of whom may announce his personal bid as early as this week.
A method Scott hopes to do this is his trademark optimistic rhetoric. Along with his Christian religion an integral a part of his political and private story, Scott typically quotes Scripture at his marketing campaign occasions, weaving his reliance on religious steering into his stump speech and even bestowing the identify “Religion in America” on his pre-launch listening tour.
Scott stated Monday that America’s promise means “you and I can go as excessive as our character, our grit, and our expertise will take us.” “That’s why I’m the candidate the far left fears essentially the most.”
The Democratic Nationwide Committee responded to Scott’s announcement by dismissing the notion that Scott gives a lot of a substitute for Trump’s insurance policies. DNC chair Jamie Harrison, who ran unsuccessfully for Senate in South Carolina in 2020, launched an announcement Monday calling the senator “a fierce advocate of the MAGA agenda,” a reference to the previous president’s “Make America Nice Once more” motion.
On many points, Scott does certainly align with mainstream GOP positions. He desires to cut back authorities spending and prohibit abortion, saying he would signal a federal legislation to ban abortions after 15 weeks of being pregnant if elected president.
However Scott has pushed the social gathering on some policing overhaul measures for the reason that killing of George Floyd, and he has often criticized Trump’s response to racial tensions. All through their disagreements, although, Scott has maintained a typically cordial relationship with Trump, saying in his ebook that the previous president “listened intently” to his viewpoints on race-related points.
When he was appointed to the Senate by then-governor Haley in 2012, Scott grew to become the primary Black senator from the South since simply after the Civil Warfare. Successful a 2014 particular election to serve out the rest of his time period made him the primary Black candidate to win a statewide race in South Carolina for the reason that Reconstruction period.
He has lengthy stated his present time period, which runs via 2029, could be his final.
Scott rejects the notion that the nation is inherently racist and has repudiated the educating of vital race concept, an instructional framework that presents the concept the nation’s establishments keep the dominance of white individuals.
“I would be the President who destroys the liberal lie that our nation is evil,” he stated Monday. “We have to cease canceling our Founding Fathers and begin celebrating them.”
If Scott is profitable, he could be the primary Black particular person to win the Republican presidential nomination and the second elected to the presidency, following Barack Obama in 2008.
Different Republicans are nonetheless deciding whether or not to wade into the presidential race, together with former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez.
President Joe Biden is searching for reelection and faces solely token opposition within the Democratic major. His social gathering voted to maneuver South Carolina to the leadoff spot for subsequent 12 months’s presidential major calendar.
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Weissert reported from Washington. Meg Kinnard will be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP
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