Tim Scott

Timothy Eugene Scott (born September 19, 1965) is an American businessman and politician serving as the senior United States senator from South Carolina, a seat he has held since 2013. A member of the Republican Party, he is the first African-American senator in the Southern United States to be directly elected, the longest-serving African-American senator in U.S. history, the first African-American to serve in both the House and Senate, and the first African-American senator to chair a full committee.

Born and raised in Charleston, Scott worked in financial services before entering politics. He served on the Charleston County Council from 1995 to 2009, was a member of the South Carolina General Assembly from 2009 to 2011, and represented South Carolina's 1st congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2011 to 2013. In 2013, Governor Nikki Haley appointed Scott to the Senate after Jim DeMint resigned. Scott won the special election for the seat in 2014, and was elected to a full term in 2016 and reelected in 2022. He became the senior senator from South Carolina after Lindsey Graham died in July 2026.

In May 2023, Scott declared his candidacy for the 2024 Republican Party presidential nomination. He suspended his campaign in November due to low polling numbers. After the 2024 elections, Scott was elected chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. He also chairs the Senate Committee on Banking.

Scott was born on September 19, 1965, in North Charleston, South Carolina, to Frances, a nursing assistant, and Ben Scott Sr. When Scott was seven years old, his parents divorced, leaving him and his older brother, who later became a sergeant major in the U.S. Army, to grow up in working-class poverty with their mother, who often worked double shifts to support her family.

After his parents divorced, Scott, his mother, and his older brother moved into his maternal grandparents' house. There, he formed a close bond with his grandfather.

As a freshman at North Charleston's R.B. Stall High School, he failed several subjects, prompting his mother to send him to summer school, which he had to finance by working at a local movie theater. During this time, he met John Moniz, the owner of a nearby Chick-fil-A. Their initial interaction over a sandwich at Scott's workplace evolved into a substantial mentorship. Moniz educated Scott on individual responsibility, conservative business principles, philanthropy, and finance.

From an early age, Scott enjoyed sports and excelled at football. He overcame racial prejudice in high school, securing election as student body vice president in his junior year and student body president as a senior.

A month before his senior year, he fell asleep while driving, resulting in a car accident that dimmed his prospects as a football recruit. Nevertheless, he attended Presbyterian College from 1983 to 1984 on a partial football scholarship. He was introduced to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, an encounter that led him to his Christian faith, which became a central part of his life. Scott later transferred to Charleston Southern University, where he graduated in 1988 with a Bachelor of Science degree in political science.

Scott ran in a February 1995 special election for the Charleston County Council at-large seat vacated by Keith Summey, who had resigned upon being elected mayor of North Charleston. Scott won the seat as a Republican, receiving nearly 80% of the vote in the white-majority district. He became the first black Republican elected to any office in South Carolina since the late 19th century.

In 1996, Scott challenged Democratic State Senator Robert Ford in South Carolina's 42nd Senate district but lost 65–35%.

Scott was reelected to the Charleston County Council in 2000. In 2004, he was reelected again with 61% of the vote, defeating Democrat Elliot Summey (son of Mayor Keith Summey).

Scott served on the Charleston County Council from 1995 until 2009, becoming chairman in 2007. In 1997, he supported posting the Ten Commandments outside the council chambers, saying it would remind members of the absolute rules they should follow. The county council unanimously approved the display, and Scott nailed a King James version of the Commandments to the wall. Shortly thereafter, the ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State challenged this in a federal suit. After an initial court ruling that the display was unconstitutional, the council settled out of court to avoid incurring more legal fees. Of the costs of the suit, Scott said, "Whatever it costs in the pursuit of this goal is worth it."

In January 2001, the U.S. Department of Justice sued Charleston County, South Carolina for racial discrimination under the Voting Rights Act, because its council seats were based on at-large elections, meaning that the whole county voted to fill each seat. DOJ had attempted to negotiate with county officials on this issue in November 2000. Justice officials noted that at-large seats dilute the voting strength of the significant African American minority in the county, who in 2000 made up 34.5% of the population. They had been unable to elect any "candidates of their choice" for years. Whites or European Americans made up 61.9% of the county population. County officials noted that the majority of voters in 1989 had approved electing members by at-large seats in a popular referendum.

Scott entered the election for lieutenant governor but switched to run for South Carolina's 1st congressional district after Republican incumbent Henry Brown announced his retirement. The 1st district is based in Charleston and includes approximately the northern 3/4 of the state's coastline (except for Beaufort and Hilton Head Island, which were included in the 2nd District after redistricting).

Scott finished first in the nine-candidate June 8 Republican primary, receiving a plurality of 32% of the vote. Fellow Charleston County Councilman Paul Thurmond was second with 16%. Carroll A. Campbell III, the son of former Governor Carroll A. Campbell Jr., was third with 14%. Charleston County School Board member Larry Kobrovsky ranked fourth with 11%. Five other candidates had single-digit percentages.

A runoff was held on June 22 between Scott and Thurmond. Scott was endorsed by the Club for Growth, various Tea Party movement groups, former Alaska governor and vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, Republican House Whip Eric Cantor, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, and South Carolina senator Jim DeMint. He defeated Thurmond 68–32% and won every county in the district.

According to the Associated Press, Scott "swamped his opponents in fundraising, spending almost $725,000 during the election cycle to less than $20,000 for his November opponents". He won the general election against Democratic nominee Ben Frasier 65–29%. With this election, Scott and Allen West of Florida became the first African-American Republicans in Congress since J. C. Watts retired in 2003. Scott also became the first African-American Republican elected to Congress from South Carolina in 114 years.

Scott was unopposed in the primary and won the general election against Democratic nominee Bobbie Rose, 62–36%.

On December 17, 2012, South Carolina governor Nikki Haley announced she would appoint Scott to replace retiring Senator Jim DeMint, who had previously announced that he would retire from the Senate to become the President of The Heritage Foundation. Scott is the first African American U.S. senator from South Carolina. He was one of three black U.S. Senators in the 113th Congress, alongside Mo Cowan and later Cory Booker (and the first since Roland Burris retired in 2010 after succeeding Barack Obama). He is the first African American to be a U.S. senator from the Southern United States since Reconstruction.

During two periods, first from January 2, 2013, until February 1, 2013, and again from July 16, 2013, until October 31, 2013, Scott was the only African American senator. He and Cowan were the first black senators to serve alongside each other.

News media reported that Scott, Representative Trey Gowdy, former South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster, former First Lady of South Carolina Jenny Sanford, and South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control Director Catherine Templeton were on Haley's short list to replace DeMint. Of choosing Scott, Haley said, "It is important to me, as a minority female, that Congressman Scott earned this seat, he earned this seat for the person that he is. He earned this seat with the results he has shown."

Scott ran to serve the final two years of DeMint's term and won, defeating Democratic nominee Joyce Dickerson. In January 2014, he signed an amicus brief in support of Senator Ron Johnson's legal challenge to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management's Affordable Care Act ruling.

Scott was reelected to a full term, defeating Democratic nominee Thomas Dixon. He was endorsed by the Club for Growth.

In February 2023, it was reported that Scott was preparing for a presidential run. He announced a "listening tour" that would include a Black History Month event in Charleston, South Carolina, as the tour's first stop and then hosted events and speeches throughout Iowa, the first state to vote in the 2024 Republican presidential primaries. Other announced and suspected Republican candidates also hosted events in Iowa at the same time as Scott.

On April 12, 2023, Scott formed an exploratory committee to potentially run for president. On May 19, he filed with the Federal Election Commission to run for president. He formally announced his candidacy on May 22, in North Charleston, South Carolina.

Scott announced the suspension of his campaign on Fox News's Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy on November 12, 2023.

Scott believes that federal spending and taxes should be reduced.

Scott believes the Affordable Care Act should be repealed. He has said that U.S. health care is among the greatest in the world, that people all over the world come to study in American medical schools, waiting lists are rare, and that Americans are able to choose their insurance, providers, and course of treatment. Scott supports an alternative to the ACA that he says keeps its benefits while controlling costs by reforming the medical tort system by limiting non-economic damages and by reforming Medicare.

In January 2019, Scott was one of six senators to cosponsor the Health Insurance Tax Relief Act, delaying the Health Insurance Tax for two years.

Scott supports infrastructure development and public works for his district. He opposes restrictions on deepwater oil drilling.

Scott was among the 31 Senate Republicans who voted against final passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023.

During the late 1990s, Scott publicly declared himself a virgin, and claimed to have taken a pledge of abstinence until marriage. In 2012, when asked if he was still following his pledge, he replied, "Not as well as I did then."

In May 2023, Scott shared details about being in a relationship with an unnamed girlfriend. In November 2023, he publicly announced he was dating Mindy Noce, an interior designer from Charleston. The couple appeared together at the third 2024 Republican primary debate. On January 21, 2024, Scott announced their engagement. They married on August 3, 2024, in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.