2 months after dropping out of the presidential race, SC Senator endorses Trump instead governor who appointed him to the Senate
By Skylar Laird
SCDailyGazette.com
COLUMBIA — South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott endorsed former President Donald Trump during a Friday night, Jan. 19 rally in New Hampshire, four days ahead of the state’s Republican primary.
The endorsement, first reported by The New York Times, passes over former Gov. Nikki Haley, who appointed Scott to the U.S. Senate in December 2012.
Scott joins South Carolina’s senior senator, Lindsey Graham, as well as half of South Carolina’s six GOP U.S. House members in backing Trump over their former governor: Reps. Russell Fry of Horry County, Joe Wilson of Lexington County and William Timmons of Greenville County.
The only Republican congressman backing Haley instead is Ralph Norman of York County, who served in the state House when Haley was a legislator and governor. The other two GOP members of the delegation have yet to endorse anyone in the presidential contest.
“Interesting that Trump’s lining up with all the Washington insiders when he claimed he wanted to drain the swamp,” Haley said in a statement in response to the endorsement.
“But the fellas are gonna do what the fellas are gonna do,” she added.
After dropping out of the presidential race in November, Scott stayed mum on who he might endorse, declining to choose a candidate during the Fox News Channel segment in which he dropped out of the race.
Scott’s name has been raised as a potential running mate for Trump.
During his own campaign, Scott never bashed Trump, unlike others in the contest. And the two worked together on legislation when Trump was in the White House.
That includes a 2017 law creating Opportunity Zones, touted as a way to revitalize low-income areas by offering tax breaks to businesses that invest in them. In his 2020 State of the Union address, Trump recognized Scott for starting the initiative, which Democrats have criticized as helping the well-connected more than the vulnerable.
During the same Fox News segment in which Scott announced the end of his campaign, he told the show’s host, former U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy — a longtime friend — he didn’t want to be vice president. Still, Scott could change his mind, as politicians tend to do. Before becoming Trump’s United Nations ambassador, Haley said she intended to serve out her second term as governor.
Trump has led the 2024 GOP presidential pack from the outset.
On Monday, Jan. 15, he won Iowa by a mile, taking a historic, 30-percentage-point margin of victory over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Haley trailed 2 points behind him for third place.
Polls have shown Haley getting closer to Trump and DeSantis far behind in New Hampshire, where primary voters were to weigh in Tuesday. The Granite State’s governor, Chris Sununu, backs Haley. But she’s still expected to place second there, before the crucial first-in-the-South primary in South Carolina on Feb. 24.
Other SC Republicans endorsing Trump
Before withdrawing, DeSantis had bragged that he had more endorsements from legislators than Haley in her home state. But Trump has lined up more endorsements from past and present lawmakers than both of them combined.
They include Gov. Henry McMaster, who has backed Trump from the beginning. As lieutenant governor, McMaster was the first elected official to endorse Trump ahead of South Carolina’s presidential primary in 2016. A year later, Trump picked Haley as his first U.N. ambassador, allowing McMaster to ascend to a job he’d long wanted. His support for Trump has never wavered.
Trump was McMaster’s guest to the state’s biggest college rivalry game last November. Both briefly walked on the field at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia during halftime between the Gamecocks and Tigers, who won the game.
Other South Carolina Republicans backing Trump include House Speaker Murrell Smith, House Majority Leader Davey Hiott, House Ways and Means Chairman Bruce Bannister, Attorney General Alan Wilson, Treasurer Curtis Loftis, former Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, and former legislator and U.S. Attorney Peter McCoy.
And it was Trump, not Haley, who last August headlined the South Carolina Republican Party’s annual Silver Elephant Dinner, the party’s premier fundraising event.
Allies turned rivals
Haley and Scott spent years as political allies.
They served together in the South Carolina House for a single term after he won a seat from Charleston County in 2008 to become the first Black Republican in the Legislature since the Reconstruction era following the Civil War. Two years later, he won a U.S. House seat representing the coastal 1st District with a whopping 65% of the vote, and she won the governor’s office.
When Haley picked Scott to replace Sen. Jim DeMint, who resigned with four years left in his term, Scott became the only Black Republican in Congress and the South’s first Black Republican senator since Reconstruction.
At the time, Haley said appointing a trailblazer like Scott would show America it’s a new day in South Carolina.
Scott’s remained popular since, easily winning a special election to his Senate seat in 2014, and re-election in 2016 and 2022.
But the presidential campaign turned the allies into rivals.
In one heated exchange during the September debate in Simi Valley, California, Haley questioned why the national debt increased while Scott was in the Senate despite him saying he would cut down on government spending. Scott shot back by accusing Haley of spending $50,000 on curtains while she was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations — a request made by President Barack Obama’s administration and not Haley personally.
Editor’s note: This article was updated after Scott’s announcement to reflect that he did endorse Trump (rather than planned to) and to correct the years Scott was re-elected to the U.S. Senate.
Skylar Laird covers the South Carolina Legislature and criminal justice issues. Originally from Missouri, she previously worked for The Post and Courier’s Columbia bureau.
