COLUMBIA, S.C. — Sen. Tim Scott won reelection Tuesday to what he has said is a final six-year term from South Carolina, but the only Black Republican in the U.S. Senate may have bigger future political ambitions.
Scott beat Democratic state Rep. Krystle Matthews for a second full term. He was appointed to the U.S. Senate in 2013 by then Gov. Nikki Haley when Jim DeMint resigned and also won a special election.
Scott, 57, has spent about as much time helping other Republicans as he has campaigning in 2022. He released a memoir called “America, A Redemption Story,” where he tells his story of being raised by a single mother and his rise as a Black Republican in South Carolina.
Scott has remained coy about any plans beyond winning reelection. He has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2024 or later depending on how the field shapes up. Scott has made several trips to Iowa and other states that get an early say in the presidential nomination process.
Scott is the U.S. Senate’s only Black Republican. He is one of the Republican Party’s best fundraisers and got a primetime speech at the 2020 Republican National Convention.
Scott began his general election campaign in the summer with $25 million in the bank and still had $21 million a month before the election. Matthews has raised $133,00 for her primary and general election run.
Matthews’ campaign struggled. Much of the attention was on a series of conversations that were taped without Matthews’ knowledge and released by Project Veritas, a group calling itself a media organization though it relies on tactics — including sting operations — that are not widely accepted media practices.
In the tapes, which Matthews has acknowledged, the Black Democrat said she keeps white voters “under my thumbs” and suggested she should fund her campaign with “dope boy money,” which she said was a joke.
Several Democrats, including South Carolina gubernatorial candidate Joe Cunningham, condemned Matthews.
Matthews also was running for a third term in the South Carolina House, but Republican-dominated redistricting put more likely GOP voters into her district in Berkeley and Charleston counties.
In his 2014 special election and 2016 election to a first full term, Scott has faced a Black Democrat and won by at least 60% of the vote.
Democrats haven’t won a U.S. Senate race in South Carolina since Ernest “Fritz” Hollings was reelected to his final term in 1998.
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