With the looming Trump arrests, South Carolina Tim Scott sees an opening, particularly with Ron DeSantis lightly maintaining his support of the president, albeit while attacking his character at the same time.
It may not be a winning formula. Most recent poll has the only non Trump-DeSantis candidate, Nikki Haley, at 3%, which has been a consistent decline from her top polling number of 7%.
Still, Scott seems ready to take the plunge. He’ll be hosting a big deal donor summit in his home state next month, and is planning on visiting two early primary states before then. There will be a “political update” at the summit, where Scott is expected to formally announce, allowing his donors to feel particularly special.
Expect Scott to court the evangelical vote. With former Vice President Mike Pence waffling on whether or not to jump in, Scott feels like he’d have an inside track to that lane. He met with a group of key pastors in Iowa last month.
And Scott even has a super PAC, that’s headed by former GOP Colorado Senator Cory Gardner. Gardner, early on, wasn’t pro Trump, calling on him to drop out of presidential race after the Access Hollywood tapes came out. But they patched things up and Trump supported his re-election. Still, Gardner is not seen as a reflexively pro Trump figure, signaling that Scott may go on the attack against the former President, especially if he has the attacks all to himself.
Scott will have a signature campaign issue as well. Working with Trump, Scott has been focused on creating “opportunity zones” in inner city neighborhoods in need. Those create big tax breaks for businesses wanting to invest in those areas in need. As someone black himself and he grew up in relative poverty, Scott will be able to speak about that issue from personal experience.
However, all this may simply be a play for the vice presidency. Senator Lindsey Graham has openly said he’d advocate for Trump to choose Scott as his pick. If Scott focuses on his niche issues, he may have a shot. If he goes scorched Earth against Trump seeing that no one else is, and plays against his personality type, expect a very different type of candidate. We’ll keep you posted.
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