Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) announced his entry into the 2024 GOP presidential primary Monday at a campaign rally in his birthplace of North Charleston, but not before excitedly shouting out the name of the city “with a big, weird hoot,” as MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow pointed out.
Scott, who finally filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on Friday after not-so-subtly depicting himself as a candidate since April, was introduced by his nephew, Ben. “Hello, North Charleston!” a boisterous Scott exclaimed as he entered the stage, the pitch in his voice suddenly shifting upwards for the last syllable.
The delivery of those words spurred Maddow to compare them to Peter Brady’s voice cracking as he and his siblings sing “Time to Change” during a 1972 episode of The Brady Bunch.
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“That was a rough first three seconds of his presidential campaign,” said Maddow, laughing. “But who knows? Maybe it was just a rough first couple of seconds. Maybe in the end, he will do great. It worked out great for Peter Brady, in the end. He got through it. It was tough.”
In a dozen polls conducted from mid-April to mid-May, Scott never received more than 2 percent of the vote, each time trailing another candidate from South Carolina: former Governor Nikki Haley. Scott has more than $21 million in campaign cash, and recently made a $5.5 million ad purchase for airtime in Iowa and New Hampshire through August, when the first GOP primary debate is scheduled.
The Senate’s only Black Republican, Scott told supporters Monday at Charleston Southern University, his alma mater, that he is the candidate “the far left fears the most.”
“You see, when I cut your taxes, they called me a prop. When I refunded the police, they called me a token. When I pushed back on President Biden, they even called me the ‘n-word,’” he said. “I disrupt their narrative. I threaten their control. The truth of my life disrupts their lies.”
