COLUMBIA : Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina filed paperwork on Friday to enter the 2024 Republican presidential race, testing whether a more optimistic vision of America’s future can resonate with GOP voters who have elevated partisan brawlers in recent years.
The Senate’s only Black Republican has made his grandfather’s work in the cotton fields of the Deep South a bedrock of his political identity. Yet Scott rejects the notion that racism remains a powerful force in society, and he has cast his candidacy and rise from generational poverty as the realization of a dream only possible in America.
He is scheduled to make a formal announcement on Monday at Charleston Southern University, a private Baptist college and Scott’s alma mater, in his hometown of North Charleston.
Scott already has scheduled TV ads to begin airing in the early voting states Iowa and New Hampshire early next week, the most significant advertising expenditure by a potential or declared candidate in the early stages of the 2024 nominating campaign.
