Tim Scott Weighs 2024 Run, Selling Unity to a Party Eager for a Fight

February 17, 2023 Politics 1 Views

Ms. Haley, however, is a problem for Mr. Scott. She declared her presidential candidacy on Tuesday, pitching a similar message that it is time for a change in their party. As governor, Ms. Haley appointed Mr. Scott to the Senate in 2013, and they remain intertwined.

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Like Mr. Scott, Ms. Haley is running as an outsider in her white-dominated party, the child of Indian immigrants who sees tolerance in America, not bigotry, and campaigns with a smile, not a scowl.

But Mr. Scott, 57, and Ms. Haley, 51, may be fishing in the same pond for Republican voters who want a less confrontational standard-bearer.

“They’re both just very likable people,” said Maureen McGuinness, a retiree who attended Ms. Haley’s rally on Wednesday. “I’d vote for either one of them.” Pressed to choose, she couldn’t.

Katon Dawson, a former chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party and a spokesman for Ms. Haley, conceded the problem. He said Ms. Haley and Mr. Scott would not attack each other; they are too close. She has run tougher races than he has, Mr. Dawson said, and is more tested as a politician, a governor and a foreign policy figure.

But, Mr. Dawson added, “it will cause some confusion” with voters.

Ms. Haley may have a stronger résumé, but Mr. Scott’s unceasing affability has a power all its own. On Thursday night, he worked the room with an easy charm, extending his hand to the 10-year-old Black girl who had given him a lengthy introduction and saying, “I’m Tim Scott.”

He left the podium to discuss the biblical story of Joseph with a white Citadel cadet and member of the Young Republicans, who said earlier in the program that when he reflected on Black history, he remembered how Joseph forgave the brothers who sold him into bondage.