Anti-LGBTQ Sen. Scott enters 2024 presidential race

epublican .S. Sen. Tim Scott S.C. , who filed paperwork on Friday with the Federal Election Commission to run for president in , kicked off his campaign for the OP primary with an announcement address onday morning in Charleston.

The only Black Republican member serving in the Senate, Scott developed a strident anti-LGBTQ record since entering national politics in with his first election to the House, during which time he told Newsweek homosexuality is a “morally wrong choice, like adultery.”

Today, Scott remains opposed to same-sex marriage, writing on his Senate bio that South Carolinians “have voted overwhelmingly to protect the traditional definition of marriage, and stand with their decision.” n ebruary, with OP Sen. ick Scott of lorida, Scott intro- duced legislation that would cut funding for any elementary or middle school in the country that changes a student’s pronouns, gender markers, or access to sex-based accommodations like locker rooms without first obtaining consent from their parents or legal guardians.

Last year, Scott cosigned a letter with other Senate epublicans urging the OP caucus to oppose the espect for arriage Act unless it contained provisions allowing for discrimination against L T couples. Scott, , is single and never married, which has led to some speculation about his sexual orientation.

A 14-year-old transgender youth left his school, walked down Huse Road to the overpass over busy Interstate 293, climbed the chain-link fence installed by the New Hampshire Department of Transportation to prevent people falling off the older bridge and its low guard rails, and lept into eastbound traffic.

Having developed a reputation as a fiscal and social conser- vative who is well-liked by his Republican Senate colleagues, Scott hopes to build a coalition of establishment types and evangelical conservatives who are skeptical or critical of the party’s frontrunner, former President onald Trump.

According to ox, Scott is polling around percent, but he will be able to transfer $22 million from his Senate campaign coffers to help fund his presidential bid and has begun aggressively buying up television ads in early primary states as campaigns get underway in the next few months.

The unior senator from South Carolina will face off against the state’s former Republican governor, Nikki Haley, who served as ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration. Haley, who appointed Scott to fill the Senate seat vacated by Jim e int in , announced her bid for president in ebruary.

Caitlin Byrd, senior politics reporter for the Post and Courier, noted on Twitter that South Carolina Democrats are broadcasting mobile billboards that echo the same arguments they used to oppose Haley’s candidacy, seeking to portray the candidates’ platforms as indistinguishable from Trump’s.

CHRISTOPHER KANE