Republican US Senator Tim Scott has entered the 2024 presidential race, according to a filing with the US election regulator yesterday, in what amounts to a long-shot bet that a message of unity and optimism can still appeal in a party where many voters are hungry for a bare-knuckled fight.
The impoverished child of a single mother and the only Black Republican in the US Senate, Scott often points to his personal story as proof that America remains a land of promise.
On the campaign trail, his sunny disposition presents a major contrast with other declared and prospective candidates, including former president Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who have portrayed the US as a declining nation in need of rescuing from a corrupt, leftist elite.
As a Black conservative, Scott is a rarity in a country where politics is sharply divided along racial lines. Some 92 per cent of Black voters backed Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, while 55pc of white voters backed Trump.
Scott often called out Trump when he was president for making racially insensitive comments and blocked several of his judicial nominees for that reason as well.
While Scott has described being the victim of racial prejudice, he has repeatedly insisted that America is not a racist country.
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