Last Wednesday, South Carolina Republican Senator Tim Scott launched an exploratory committee as he considers a possible run for the 2024 GOP nomination, CBS News reported.
Senator Scott made the announcement in a new video posted on social media, vowing never to “back down in defense of the conservative values” that make the country “exceptional.”
Scott was scheduled to begin holding events in Iowa and New Hampshire last week.
The South Carolina Senator, who easily won reelection in November, ended 2022 with over $21 million in his campaign war chest, which he could use if he does run for president.
According to Axios, Senator Scott has been moving toward officially running in 2024 for some time. He hired former Colorado Republican Senator Cory Gardner as well as veteran Republican operative Rob Collins to co-chair a super PAC supporting him.
Additionally, Scott refused to endorse fellow South Carolinian Nikki Haley when she announced her run for the GOP nomination.
Last week, a reporter from Newsmax badgered the South Carolina Republican while he was in New Hampshire, demanding to know if he supported a federal abortion ban.
Scott reiterated that he is “100 percent pro-life” but did not say specifically if he would support Congress proposing a federal abortion ban.
When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the ruling specifically declared that abortion should be left up to the individual states. While most congressional Republicans have not advocated for a federal abortion ban, some, including Scott’s South Carolina colleague Senator Lindsey Graham, do support federal legislation limiting abortion to the first fifteen weeks of pregnancy. But that is not a federal ban.
Scott told the Newsmax reporter that he believes “we’re just having the wrong conversation” on abortion. He noted that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen recently said in a Senate banking hearing that black women in poverty should have an abortion to increase the labor force participation rate.
Calling such a suggestion ridiculous, Scott said he plans to have “a serious conversation” about issues affecting the American people and that starts with “pointing out the absolute hypocrisy of the left.”
