Republican Tim Scott officially joins the 2024 presidential race

Tim Scott has become the latest Republican to enter an increasingly crowded field of presidential contenders challenging Donald Trump for the party’s nomination in 2024.

The 57-year-old US senator from South Carolina has long been mooted as a potential presidential candidate. Scott, the only black Republican in the upper chamber of Congress, formed a presidential exploratory committee last month that allowed him to raise and spend money on a potential run, and has won several key early voting states in recent weeks, including Iowa and New York. closed the Hampshire.

He made his bid official on Monday with a speech in North Charleston, South Carolina, that drew heavily on his personal story of growing up in poverty, his Christian faith and his conservative policy preferences.

Scott said, “Joe Biden and the radical left are attacking every rung of the ladder that helped me climb.” “And that’s why I’m announcing today that I’m running for President of the United States.”

Scott’s allies say he offers a more positive message than many of his fellow Republicans, and he is popular with Capitol Hill allies and the Republican Party’s deep-pocketed donors. Many see him as a potential running mate for Trump or any other Republican if his own presidential campaign falters.

He won the endorsement of John Thune, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, on Monday. In his campaign launch speech, he gave a special shoutout to Oracle founder Larry Ellison, who has been one of Scott’s biggest financial supporters.

Scott began his presidential campaign with $22 million in cash left over from his Senate re-election bid last year. His superpack, The Opportunity Matters Fund, ended last year with $13mn in the bank, partly thanks to big donations like Ellison and prominent Wall Street figures, including Citadel’s Ken Griffin and Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman.

But Scott faces an uphill battle if he is going to gain traction among his fellow Republican candidates, who trail Trump in all national opinion polls. With the support of more than half of Republican grassroots voters, according to the latest RealClearPolitics polling averages, the former president remains the favorite for the party’s nomination.

In a distant second is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is expected to file paperwork for his own presidential bid later this week, supported by just 20 percent of Republican voters. Meanwhile, Scott has the support of less than 2 percent of Republican voters.