Sen. Tim Scott kicked off his 2024 Republican presidential campaign Monday afternoon in his home state of South Carolina, in a speech that focused on his personal story and hit President Biden and the “radical left” for fostering a culture of “grievance” over “greatness.”
In a kickoff event at Charleston Southern University in North Charleston, the only black Senate Republican emphasized his religious faith and ascension to Congress as the son of a single mother raised in poverty and the grandson of a cotton picker in the Jim Crow South.
“My family went from cotton to Congress in his lifetime,” Scott said. “And it was only possible because my grandfather had a stubborn faith: faith in God, faith in himself, and faith in what America would be.”
“This black man who struggled through the Jim Crow South believed then what some doubt now: In the goodness of America,” Scott went on. “America is the land of opportunity, and not a land of oppression.”
“Joe Biden and the radical left are attacking every single rung of the ladder that helped me climb. And that is why I am announcing today that I am running for President of the United States of America.”
“When I cut your taxes, they called me a prop. When I re-funded the police, they called me a token. When I pushed back on President Biden, they even called me the n-word,” he also said, calling himself “the candidate the far-left fears the most.”
The 57-year-old senator attacked the president and the left flank of the Democratic Party specifically for fiscal irresponsibility and lack of opportunity in education.
“The Biden administration has us retreating away from earned success, aspiration and accountability. He wants to make waitresses and mechanics pay the student loans of lawyers and doctors making six figures,” Scott also said.
“This administration has taxed, borrowed, and spent trillions of dollars trying to replace a hand up with handouts. All they bought us was crushing inflation that has devastated families like mine.”
Scott floated foreign and domestic policy proposals during his speech, including bringing an end to the nation’s “new economic Cold War” with China and making it “a federal crime to kill, ambush, or assault a cop.”
He also proposed extending a successful incentive he wrote into the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to rebuild the nation’s “manufacturing base with Opportunity Zones 2.0 and an entire Made In America agenda.”
He thanked Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison during the speech for the executive’s support. In February, Ellison donated $15 million to a pro-Scott super PAC.
In a surprise move, former President Donald Trump wished Scott luck on his campaign, posting on his Truth Social account that the senator was “a big step up” from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whom he called “totally unelectable.”
“Good luck to Senator Tim Scott in entering the Republican Presidential Primary Race. It is rapidly loading up with lots of people, and Tim is a big step up from Ron DeSanctimonious, who is totally unelectable,” the 76-year-old GOP frontrunner said on his own social media platform.
“I got Opportunity Zones done with Tim, a big deal that has been highly successful. Good luck Tim!”
Sen. John Thune (R-SD), who endorsed Scott and opened the event on Monday, referred to him as “a candidate who comes into this race with boundless hope and optimism for this great country.”
“I don’t know about you, but I think our country is ready to be inspired again,” he said.
Scott will face off against Trump and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, among others, for the GOP nomination.
DeSantis is expected to announce his presidential campaign later this week.