NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — Sen. Tim Scott officially entered the race for the White House on Monday, announcing his bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination during a speech in South Carolina.
“We live in the land of opportunity,” Scott said during an event in his hometown of North Charleston. “We live in the land where it is absolutely possible for a kid raised in poverty, in a single-parent household, in a small apartment to one day serve in the people’s house, and maybe even the White House.”
The announcement came days after he filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission indicating his intent to run for president, NPR reported.
“Joe Biden and the radical left are attacking every single rung of the ladder that helped me climb, and that’s why I’m announcing today I’m running for president of the United States of America,” he said Monday.
Republican Sen. Tim Scott announces his presidential run https://t.co/MFpxpr6yvD pic.twitter.com/1WLh6QNfhi
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) May 22, 2023
Scott, who is the only Black Republican in the Senate, downplayed racial tensions in the U.S. while announcing his candidacy.
“I think back (to) a couple (of) years ago when I addressed the nation and I said America is not a racist country,” he said. “We need to stop canceling our founding fathers and start celebrating them as the geniuses that they were. They weren’t perfect but they believed that we could become a more perfect union.”
He vowed to strengthen the southern border, protect religious liberty, combat the fentanyl trade, support law enforcement officers, build the country’s military strength and get more Americans back to work.
“We will win the next century by the strength of our economy,” he said. “China started this new economic cold war but America, we’re going to finish it.”
Scott has represented South Carolina in the U.S. Senate since 2013. From 2011 to 2013, he represented the state’s first congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives. He has also served in the South Carolina House of Representatives and the Charleston County Council.
Scott joins former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley and former President Donald Trump, who previously announced plans to seek the Republican nomination. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is also expected to join the race, according to USA Today.
In April, President Joe Biden announced he was seeking reelection.
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