Tim Scott plans presidential campaign based on 'unity and optimism': WSJ

Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) is planning to launch a 2024 campaign for president, reported the Wall Street Journal on Monday.

"Mr. Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, is testing a message with GOP voters in key early states focused on unity and optimism as some Republicans say it is time to move on from the Trump era. Mr. Trump has announced a bid for president in the 2024 election," reported Eliza Collins. "Jennifer DeCasper, a Scott senior adviser, said he was 'excited to share his vision of hope and opportunity and hear the American people’s response.' What isn’t clear yet, some people close to Mr. Scott acknowledge, is whether the GOP base that enthusiastically embraced Mr. Trump is interested in that message."

So far, former President Donald Trump is the only major Republican candidate to formally declare his candidacy. But this comes as former South Carolina Gov. and United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley is also preparing to launch her candidacy, after a Fox News interview in which she insinuated she is capable of offering newer leadership that Trump, from an older generation, cannot.

South Carolina is an early state in the presidential primary calendar. Democrats have pushed to move it even further up in the schedule, following the state's key role in securing the nomination for President Joe Biden three years ago.

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Scott, a former state legislator and congressman who grew up in a poor family, is one of the few Black Republicans in federal office. He helped craft the "Opportunity Zones" program in Trump's 2017 tax bill, which gives developers tax breaks to build in low-income areas — a program that some experts consider a failure.

He also played a key role in negotiations with Democrats a year ago to try to craft a national police reform bill, which would have been the first of its kind in American history — but the effort stalled out over a disagreement about how to reform qualified immunity, the legal doctrine that shields police officers from most kinds of lawsuits for their actions on the job.

Current polling shows little challenge to Trump as he seeks a second term. Some polls at the end of last year showed Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), another potential presidential hopeful who has not declared, leading Trump; multiple recent polls show the former president topping him in a crowded field, but one shows the race being more competitive in a two-way matchup.