By MEG KINNARD and WILL WEISSERT (Associated Press)
NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott launched his presidential marketing campaign on Monday, providing an optimistic and compassionate message he’s hoping can function a distinction with the political combativeness that has dominated the early GOP main discipline.
The Senate’s solely Black Republican, Scott kicked off the marketing campaign in his hometown of North Charleston, on the campus of Charleston Southern University, his alma mater and a personal faculty affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. He repeatedly talked about his Christian religion in his kickoff speech, crying, “Amen! Amen! Amen!” and at a number of factors elicited responses from the group, who typically chanted his title.
But Scott additionally provided a stark political alternative, saying “our party and our nation are standing at a time for choosing: Victimhood or victory.” He added that Republicans may even must resolve between “grievance or greatness.”
“I choose freedom and hope and opportunity,” Scott stated. He went on to inform the group that ”we want a president who persuades not simply our pals and our base” however seeks “commonsense” options and shows “compassion for people who don’t agree with us.”
That was a far cry from former President Donald Trump, who has performed to the GOP’s most loyal supporters with repeated lies about his 2020 election loss as he campaigns for a second time period in workplace. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who might launch his personal bid as quickly as this week, has pushed Florida to the best by championing contentious new restrictions on abortion and LGBTQ rights and by searching for to restrict the company energy of Disney, one in all his state’s strongest enterprise pursuits.
Scott, 57, deliberate to huddle with home-state donors Tuesday, then start a two-day marketing campaign swing to Iowa and New Hampshire, which go first on the GOP presidential voting calendar.
His announcement occasion featured a gap prayer by Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Senate Republican, who stated, “I think our country is ready to be inspired again.” Republican Sen. Mike Rounds, South Dakota’s different senator, has already introduced his help for Scott.
Numerous high-profile GOP senators have backed Trump’s third bid for the White House, together with Scott’s South Carolina colleague, Lindsey Graham. Trump nonetheless struck a conciliatory tone Monday, welcoming Scott to the race and noting that the pair labored collectively on his administration’s signature tax cuts.
A supply of energy for Scott will likely be his marketing campaign checking account. He enters the 2024 race with additional cash readily available than another presidential candidate in U.S. historical past, with $22 million left in his marketing campaign account on the finish of his 2022 marketing campaign that he can switch to his presidential coffers.
Scott additionally gained reelection in firmly Republican South Carolina — which has an early slot on the Republican presidential main calendar — by greater than 20 factors lower than six months in the past. Advisers wager that may make Scott a critical contender for an early, momentum-generating win.
But Scott shouldn’t be the one South Carolina possibility. The state’s former governor, Nikki Haley, who as soon as served as Trump’s former United Nations ambassador, can also be operating.
Ben LeVan, a enterprise professor at Charleston Southern who attended Monday’s occasion, stated he hadn’t determined whom to help within the GOP main however didn’t plan to again Trump.
“I really do hope that we can bring some civility back in politics,” LeVan stated. “That’s one of the nice things about Tim Scott, and quite frankly, Nikki Haley, and some of the other candidates as well. They’re more diplomatic, and that is something that I appreciate.”
Like others within the GOP race, together with former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and “Woke, Inc.” writer Vivek Ramaswamy, Scott’s preliminary job will likely be discovering a method to stand out in a discipline led by Trump and DeSantis.
One means Scott hopes to try this is his trademark political optimism. Scott typically quotes Scripture at his marketing campaign occasions, weaving his reliance on non secular steerage into his speeches calling his travels earlier than the marketing campaign’s official launch, the “Faith in America” listening tour.
Scott stated Monday that America’s promise means “you can go as high as our character, our grit, and our talent will take you.”
The Democratic National Committee responded to Scott’s announcement by dismissing the notion that Scott provides 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 a press release calling the senator “a fierce advocate of the MAGA agenda,” a reference to the previous president’s “Make America Great Again” motion.
On many points, Scott does certainly align with mainstream GOP positions. He needs to scale back authorities spending and limit abortion, saying he would signal a federal regulation to ban abortions after 15 weeks of being pregnant if elected president.
But Scott has pushed the social gathering on some policing overhaul measures for the reason that killing of George Floyd, and he has sometimes criticized Trump’s response to racial tensions. Throughout their disagreements, although, Scott has maintained a usually cordial relationship with Trump, saying in his guide 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 turned the primary Black senator from the South since simply after the Civil War. Winning 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 by means of 2029, can be his final.
Scott has lengthy rejected the notion that the nation is inherently racist. He’s additionally routinely repudiated the instructing of vital race principle, an instructional framework that presents the concept that the nation’s establishments keep the dominance of white folks.
“Today, I’m living proof that America is the land of opportunity and not a land of oppression,” he stated Monday.
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Weissert reported from Washington. Meg Kinnard might be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP
Source: www.bostonherald.com”