Political consultant backing Tim Scott spewed the N-word during card game

A political consultant closely tied to the effort to elect Tim Scott president repeatedly used the N-word when he was playing a card game with friends, a video obtained by POLITICO shows.

Anton Castaneda is the main adviser to Opportunity Matters Fund, a super PAC that is doing work in early primary states to support Scott’s campaign. It has paid Castaneda’s firm more than $1.3 million in the last several years for strategy, fundraising and digital consulting and ad production. He is a former congressional staffer for two prominent Black Republican politicians: Scott (R-S.C.) and former Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas).

The undated video shows Castaneda smiling and speaking in rapid fire as he boasts and jokingly insults his friends.

“N----r,” Castaneda says to the camera, drawing the word out in the video. “Come your ass over here. Look at this dirty ass n----r. He’s my n----r,” pointing to a friend at the card table and calling him a “dirty little white boy.” He then uses the N-word three more times, at one point saying, “These n----rs can’t even do math.”

At another point, he said to one of his friends he would “go fucking Nazi on your ass.”

Castaneda is the founder of Mountaintop Advisors, a firm to which Opportunity Matters Fund has paid more than any other political consulting outfit over the last several years, according to FEC records. Scott has spoken about the need to move past racism in the country.

Castaneda declined to comment but did not deny the authenticity of the video. A spokesperson for Scott’s campaign also declined to comment.

The 36-second video was provided by an operative working to elect a rival candidate. The person shared it on condition of not being identified. It’s unknown when and where the video was filmed. The friends of Castaneda in the clip could not be identified.

One of Castaneda’s first jobs in politics was working for Scott as a legislative correspondent in 2017. He joined Hurd’s office as a legislative assistant in 2018, according to his LegiStorm profile. The next year he was a programs and strategy director for Empower America Project, a conservative leadership training organization for which Scott has served as an “honorary chairman.”

Castaneda started Mountaintop Advisors in July 2020, according to a Virginia business record. Within the first six months of his firm’s launch, Opportunity Matters Fund had paid Mountaintop Advisors almost $500,000.

A person familiar with the matter said Castaneda effectively leads Opportunity Matters Fund as its main point person.

The firm has performed a number of tasks for the super PAC, including strategy, fundraising consulting, digital consulting, website development, ad production and data acquisition and modeling, according to FEC records. The PAC was funded in large part by Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison, who has given at least $25 million, while Las Vegas casino billionaire Steve Wynn has given $1 million.

Castaneda’s face appeared in a disclaimer of a TV ad that Opportunity Matters Fund ran in the Virginia governor’s race in 2021. Scott helped narrate the spot advocating for Glenn Youngkin.

The main super PAC now backing Scott’s campaign is called TIM PAC. The person familiar with Opportunity Matters Fund told POLITICO that that PAC is still doing some work, including sending pro-Scott mailers to voters in early states.

Besides his work to boost Scott, Castaneda’s firm was paid $16,000 three months ago by Bluegrass Freedom Action, an outside group that backs Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, another Black Republican, in his bid for governor. Castaneda is listed as a director of that group in Kentucky business records.

Neither Bluegrass Freedom Action nor Cameron responded to requests for comment. 

In a 2021 response to a joint address to Congress by President Joe Biden, Scott said he’s been called the N-word by progressives and liberals. He also said during that speech that “America is not a racist country.”