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South Carolina Tim Scott is set to announce his bid for the presidency as soon as this week, Cockburn has heard from three sources.
Scott has been doing the pre-announcement ritual of touring early voting states such as Iowa and New Hampshire — as well as his home state of South Carolina.
Per one of Cockburn’s sources, Scott will announce at an event in South Carolina. No surprises there.
Scott is set to throw his hat in the ring after former president Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner, was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, and as Florida governor Ron DeSantis, thought to be the party’s top alternative to Trump, falters in the polls. DeSantis himself is also yet to announce.
In 2022, Scott’s super PAC, the Opportunity Matters Fund, received a $15 million donation from Oracle founder Larry Ellison, to assist with his midterm race. It remains to be seen whether Ellison, a top GOP donor, will back Scott in his presidential aspirations.
The South Carolina senator is set to join his state’s former governor Nikki Haley in the field, along with Trump, former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.
Along with DeSantis, other undecided candidates who may yet enter the race include former VP Mike Pence, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and New Hampshire governor Chris Sununu.
Cockburn reached out to Scott’s staff for confirmation and was redirected to an agency representing the senator, who said it was “not correct” that an announcement was coming in South Carolina this week. Cockburn waits with bated breath…
Update 8:30 p.m. ET: Four hours after Cockburn got wind of a pending announcement from the Tim Scott campaign, the Post and Courier reports that the South Carolina senator “plans to launch a presidential exploratory committee on April 12.”
Per the paper’s Caitlin Byrd, Scott is “the first could-be 2024 Republican candidate to create a formal committee devoted to raising money to explore a presidential bid even as other GOP contenders have filed into the race.
“The move acts as something of a soft launch for an all-but-certain Scott presidential campaign,” she writes.
