He has a dream. Tim Scott, the only black senator in the United States, officially announced his candidacy for the presidential 2024. The South Carolina elected official formally filed his nomination papers with the Federal Election Commission and summoned his supporters Monday to Charleston Southern University for a “special announcement.”
A 57-year-old evangelical Christian, he places his faith at the heart of his political action. In recent months, he has made no secret of his presidential ambitions. After his re-election to Congress in November, with a 26-point lead over his rival, he spoke of his grandfather, who had voted for Barack Obama: “I would have liked him to live long enough to see another president of color and that it is, this time, a republican”.
“America is not racist”
Tim Scott placed this grandfather, who worked in the cotton fields, at the heart of his family story and testified to the discrimination suffered as an African-American. However, he ures that “America is not racist”, that the United States is “a country of opportunity, not oppression”.
A bearer of conservative values on abortion or individual responsibility, he intends to distinguish himself from ex-President Donald Trump, big favorite in the Republican primary, with an optimistic message. “American families are waiting for hope. We need to have faith. Faith in God, in ourselves, in America,” he tweeted before launching.
In 2017, he also positioned himself against Donald Trump. After violent clashes between opponents anti-racism activists and members of the supremacist right in Charlottesville, the former president said then that there were wrongs “on both sides”. “I’m not going to defend the indefensible (…) What we want to see from our president is clarity and moral authority. And that moral authority is compromised when Tuesday happened. There is no doubt, ”reacted Tim Scott in an interview with Vice.
In a party that remains dominated by white men, his chances of winning seem, at this stage, very limited, with 2% of voting intentions against 56% for Donald Trump, according to the latest polls. The Governor of Florida Ron DeSantiswhich should declare itself in the middle of next week, is capped at 20%, and the former UN ambador Nikki Haley at 4.3%.
