Tim Scott files paperwork to run for president

Sen. Tim Scott on Friday made his bid for president official, filing paperwork to join a growing field of Republicans angling to overtake Donald Trump as the party’s 2024 standard-bearer.

Scott, who grew up poor and in 2012 became the South’s first Black senator since Reconstruction, is expected to draw heavily from his own biography and success story as he talks about economic and social policy on the presidential campaign trail. Known as an upbeat, mild-mannered presence in the Senate who neither fiercely embraced nor sharply rebuked Trump’s politics, Scott in his underdog campaign is seeking to form a coalition of traditional conservatives, evangelical Christians and moderate Republicans.

He is expected to hold a launch event Monday at his alma mater, Charleston Southern University in North Charleston, days before a top rival in the GOP primary, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, is expected to formally enter the race.

On Friday, Scott’s team changed his account name with the Federal Election Commission from “Tim Scott Presidential Exploratory Committee” to “Tim Scott for America” ahead of a $6 million ad buy the campaign was making in Iowa and New Hampshire, according to a senior campaign official.

Scott announced a presidential exploratory committee last month, doing so after he had already traveled to the early nominating state of Iowa in February. Since then, Scott has returned to the Hawkeye State and held campaign events in New Hampshire and his home state of South Carolina, which is expected to hold Republicans’ third presidential nominating contest, after New Hampshire and the Iowa caucuses.

Already in the race is Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador with whom Scott for years has shared Palmetto State supporters and donors. Public polling has shown both Haley and Scott to be in the low single digits, with Haley slightly ahead. She entered the race in February with a launch rally in Charleston, followed by Vivek Ramaswamy and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson. Trump launched his bid in November.

Starting his political career on the Charleston County Council months before turning 30, Scott held that position for more than a dozen years as he worked as an insurance agent, eventually starting his own Allstate insurance agency. He was elected to the South Carolina House in 2008 and then to the U.S. House in 2010, representing Charleston and surrounding areas. In late 2012, then-Gov. Haley — now a rival in the Republican presidential primary — appointed Scott to fill a Senate seat vacated by Jim DeMint, and Scott stood for elections in 2014, 2016 and 2022.