Sen. Tim Scott wants you to know that he’s not like the other candidates running for the Republican presidential nomination.

As his recent memoir, ‘America: A Redemption Story,’ makes clear, the 57-year-old is an optimist who wants us all to get along better rather than throwing culture war bombs, and he is someone who stood up to Donald Trump when he was in office.

He is also black. And, perhaps most problematic for the Republican Party, he is single.

When he first campaigned in South Carolina he made it a selling point, running as a proud 30-year-old virgin, emphasizing of his Evangelical Christian faith and his devotion to the Ten Commandments.

That did not survive his transition into political life. After winning a seat in the U.S. House, he admitted at the age of 46 that he had was not so good at sticking to his pledge of abstinence.

Tim Scott puts his marital status down to a hard childhood and an adulthood spent putting his mother first. The 57-year-old Republican Senator officially announced his run for the White House in South Carolina on Monday

Tim Scott puts his marital status down to a hard childhood and an adulthood spent putting his mother first. The 57-year-old Republican Senator officially announced his run for the White House in South Carolina on Monday

Tim Scott puts his marital status down to a hard childhood and an adulthood spent putting his mother first. The 57-year-old Republican Senator officially announced his run for the White House in South Carolina on Monday 

‘Yeah… Not as well as I did then,’ Scott told the National Journal from his office on Capitol Hill.

‘The Bible’s right. You’re better off to wait. I just wish we all had more patience.’

That is still the case when it comes to family. While political mailings for other candidates routinely picture smiling nuclear families, Scott has never married.

It makes him an outlier among presidential candidates. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has not even declared his run and his wife Casey has already been the subject of countless profiles, describing her wily political skills and ability to soften the edges of her bomb-throwing husband. 

Only two unmarried candidates have ever been elected to the White House. 

The most recent was Grover Cleveland in 1884. He married during his time in office.

Before that was James Buchanan who took office in 1857 and historians are still debating his sexuality.

When Sen. Lindsey Graham ran in 2016 he got tied up in questions about who would organize the flowers for state dinners and decorate the White House for Christmas if there was no first lady. ‘I’ve got a lot of friends,’ he said at one point. ‘We’ll have a rotating first lady.’ 

Times have changed from the days when that would matter, according to conservative commentator Matt K. Lewis. Unless Scott looks like he could actually win. 

Scott receives the Senate oath of office in January 2017 alongside his mother Frances

Scott receives the Senate oath of office in January 2017 alongside his mother Frances

Scott receives the Senate oath of office in January 2017 alongside his mother Frances 

Scott puts his marital status down to a hard childhood and an adulthood spent putting his mother first. She fled his heavy drinking father when the young Scott was seven, and he grew up in his grandparents' two-bedroom home

Scott puts his marital status down to a hard childhood and an adulthood spent putting his mother first. She fled his heavy drinking father when the young Scott was seven, and he grew up in his grandparents' two-bedroom home

Scott puts his marital status down to a hard childhood and an adulthood spent putting his mother first. She fled his heavy drinking father when the young Scott was seven, and he grew up in his grandparents’ two-bedroom home

Scott excelled at football and he went on to win a partial scholarship to Presbyterian College. A car accident wrecked his NFL dream

Scott excelled at football and he went on to win a partial scholarship to Presbyterian College. A car accident wrecked his NFL dream

Scott excelled at football and he went on to win a partial scholarship to Presbyterian College. A car accident wrecked his NFL dream

‘I don’t think it matters at all,’ he said. ‘However, if Tim Scott were to start gaining momentum, and if he started to pose a threat to Donald Trump, it is the kind of thing that Trump would invoke. And then it might matter.’

Scott puts his marital status down to a hard childhood and an adulthood spent putting his mother first. She fled his heavy drinking father when the young Scott was seven, and he grew up in his grandparents’ two-bedroom home.

He has described how his mother at times worked 16 hours a day to keep food on the table.

‘As a poor kid growing up, the most important thing for me to do was take care of my mom. And until I had that accomplished, starting a new family was just not an option for me,’ he told Politico in 2020. 

He credits a mentor, a Chick-Fil-A franchisee, with helping him find focus and encouraging him to work hard at school and at football. He went on to win a partial scholarship to Presbyterian College.

A car accident wrecked his NFL dreams. Instead, after college, he started selling insurance, eventually owning his own franchise while scouting for political opportunities that would allow him to put his evangelical background to practical use.

He might have become a Democrat. But when he visited the local Democratic Party HQ they told him to ‘wait my turn and go to the back of the line,’ he recalls in his memoir. The next day, a local Republican told him a black Republican had never been elected to the county council and to get cracking.

He served on the council for 13 years. But later said it all took a toll on his personal life, as he tried to provide for his mother and build a political career.

‘As a poor kid growing up, the most important thing for me to do was take care of my mom,’ he said. ‘And until I had that accomplished, starting a new family was just not an option for me.’

Scott is seen as a child with an unidentified aunt in this family photo from the 1960s

Scott is seen as a child with an unidentified aunt in this family photo from the 1960s

Scott is seen as a child with an unidentified aunt in this family photo from the 1960s

Just when it might have been, when a relationship was turning serious in his 40s, the South Carolina 1st District seat opened. And once again he followed his career.

And in 2013 he became the first black Republican senator since 1979. Again that makes him something of an outlier among candidates for 2024.

As Matthew Continetti, a chronicler of the American right, pointed out recently in the Washington Post, he will likely be one of the only runners who does not owe his position to Trump.

‘DeSantis won election to Congress in 2012,but his rise to prominence has been under Trump’s shadow, as Trump likes to remind voters,’ he wrote.

Only two unmarried candidates have ever been elected to the White House. The most recent was Grover Cleveland in 1884 (above)

Only two unmarried candidates have ever been elected to the White House. The most recent was Grover Cleveland in 1884 (above)

Only two unmarried candidates have ever been elected to the White House. The most recent was Grover Cleveland in 1884 (above)

‘Nikki Haley, Mike Pence and Mike Pompeo are skilled politicians, but they owe their high-ranking stature to the former president.’

In fact, Scott has at times been one of the few leading Republicans prepared to call out Trump even when he was in office. 

He publicly chastised the then president when Trump said ‘there were fine people on both sides’ after a racist march turned violent in Charlottesville, Virginia.

‘I believe the president has compromised his moral authority to lead,’ Scott told CBS News soon after. ‘As we look to the future, it’s going to be very difficult for this president to lead if, in fact, his moral authority remains compromised.’

An invitation to the Oval Office followed, where Scott writes that he spent 20 minutes explaining to Trump why so many people had been wounded by his words.

When Trump asked how he could help, Scott says he was ready with an answer, selling his idea of ‘opportunity zones’ — a program of tax incentives to encourage investment in low-income communities — which later became a flagship Trump policy. 

Now he wants to take that positive message to a broader audience. 

‘I have found that people are starving for hope,’ he told Fox and Friends last month as he announced an exploratory committee. ‘They’re starving for an optimistic, positive message that is anchored in conservative values.’

Scott (pictured in a high school year book photo) credits a mentor, a Chick-Fil-A franchisee, with helping him find focus and encouraging him to work hard at school

Scott (pictured in a high school year book photo) credits a mentor, a Chick-Fil-A franchisee, with helping him find focus and encouraging him to work hard at school

Scott (pictured in a high school year book photo) credits a mentor, a Chick-Fil-A franchisee, with helping him find focus and encouraging him to work hard at school

He starts his campaign with a healthy war chest.  of more than $20 million. And although an outsider to Trump and DeSantis he will be one of the best-funded candidates. 

His faith means he will have a ready made base. 

And for Lewis, he is one of the few Republicans who came through the Trump ‘troubles,’ as he calls them, without being humiliated. 

‘I think it’s unlikely that he would ever be the nominee this time, but if running somehow positions him to be Trump’s running mate, or to be a front runner in 2028, I would see that as all things considered a positive development,he said. 

‘And I think he really is the only person to represent a positive kind of conservatism that actually is electable in in 2024.’

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