South Carolina Senator Tim Scott said he would take his time before announcing a presidential nomination, but delivered a possible blunt speech Thursday night — just two miles down the road from hopeful Nikki Haley, who was holding her first campaign rally in 2024.
He chaired the Charleston County Republicans’ fifth annual Black History Month banquet on Thursday night and delivered an uplifting message about American race relations that particularly wowed crowds as he defended being a proud black Republican.
“Listen, I understand that I’m being treated as a second-class citizen because of the color of my skin,” he said. “I refuse, I refuse, to be treated as a second-class citizen because of the color of my party.”
Speaking to local reporters ahead of his performance, Scott said he’s not yet ready to announce a 2024 presidential nomination — though he has embarked on a “listening tour” in two key early-contest states: his home state of South Carolina and then next week in Iowa, the will hold the first GOP caucus early next year.
“We’re going to take the time to listen to Americans and talk about the issues that we think are really important,” Scott said. “I think it’s time for an optimistic, positive message anchored in conservative principles.”
South Carolina Senator Tim Scott said he would take his time before announcing a presidential nomination, but delivered a possible blunt speech Thursday night — just two miles down the road from hopeful Nikki Haley, who was holding her first campaign rally in 2024
He chaired the Charleston County Republicans’ fifth annual Black History Month banquet on Thursday night and delivered an uplifting message about American race relations that particularly wowed crowds as he defended being a proud black Republican
That positive message began by telling the audience that they had “many reasons” to celebrate Black History Month.
“If you stop at our original sin, you haven’t started the history of America,” argued Scott, the only black Republican in the US Senate. “Because America’s history is not defined by our original sin, history is defined by our redemption.”
“We’ve made tremendous progress and it’s time we celebrated our progress as a people,” he added.
He pointed to his own family’s history, noting that they went from “Cotton to Congress” in just two generations, hitting many of the same notes he had in previous speeches.
Scott’s grandfather was illiterate, only reached the third grade, and picked cotton in the fields of rural South Carolina.
Raised by a single mother – who he brought over for dinner – he expressed anger at black single mothers being encouraged to have abortions to improve their economic future.
Scott spoke about how a white mentor from his teenage years at Chick-fil-A helped him change his academic career.
That guidance and a partial football scholarship enabled him to attend college.
Scott kept direct political attacks to a minimum.
He directed some anger at President Joe Biden over inflation and also criticized those in the country who are “spreading the cancer of hopelessness.”
Scott spoke about some good things that have happened to historically black colleges and universities under former President Donald Trump — though he didn’t fully acknowledge him or mention the name of the 2024 hopeful.
Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants who made her first campaign speech on Wednesday, slammed similar racial remarks as she addressed her audience, arguing that the country is not “racist” and knocking on Democrats who claimed so.
Haley traveled to New Hampshire following their 2024 announcement and will also travel to Iowa where Scott will hold his second Listening Tour event next week.
When asked by The Post and Courier at a pre-speech gaggle if he plans to endorse Haley now that it was announced, the South Carolina senator replied no.
He previously said in a radio interview Thursday there was room for at least two GOP hopefuls from South Carolina.
Attendees at the Charleston County GOP dinner told they liked what they heard from Scott, but they were also only at the beginning of the process of deciding who they would pick in the South Carolina primary — including of former President Donald Trump.
Those who were at Haley’s event on Wednesday were more adamantly opposed to giving the former president another try.
Mainly, Haley’s supporters said they objected to Trump’s style.
“I had a lot of faith in his politics, maybe not necessarily in how he was doing things,” said Trent Watts, 45, a real estate developer from Charleston.
Watts stopped by to see Haley’s presidential announcement because his job brought him downtown on Wednesday and said he would vote for her in the 2024 South Carolina primary.
Robin Christmas, a 63-year-old semi-retiree from Greenville, South Carolina who, like Haley, had been an accountant, echoed Watts’ sentiments about Trump.
“He didn’t do a bad job,” said Christmas, who volunteered for Haley’s campaign. “He just talked too much.”
Another campaign worker, Judith Shailor, a 74-year-old resident of Fort Mill, South Carolina, said supporting Trump has been “difficult.”
“I think he’s done a lot for the country in many ways, but he’s also done a lot of damage to the country. He was divisive. And Nikki Haley is a Uniter,” she said.
Shailor, who moved to South Carolina from Vermont and ran congressional campaigns against now-Senator Bernie Sanders, said Haley was a perfect match for moderate Republicans like her.
“I think the Republican Party has to stay center stage and that’s what Nikki represents, middle ground, common sense, down to earth, values and integrity and we have to stop dividing this country. Far right and far left are out of joint,” Shailor told .
At the same time, she expressed her excitement for other potential GOP candidates.
“I’m so excited, the Republican Party has a great field of candidates,” she said, pointing to Scott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — though she added that she thought Haley was “more personable” than DeSantis.
The harshest assessment of Trump came from a Haley supporter who declined to give her name.
“I think Trump is over,” she said. “I think the Lin Wood-QAnon people need to wake up,” the woman added.