COLUMBIA, S.C. — When Tim Scott When he was a teenager, a Chick-fil-A manager named John Moniz offered him a sandwich, a job, and four years of essential guidance on how to be a businessman and a citizen. Later, after that helping hand set Scott on a path that eventually took him into politics, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley appointed him to a vacancy in the United States Senate.
Now Scott is on the verge of perhaps another breathtaking leap, but once again he will need an assist. The South Carolina senator is one of the few prominent people to pass former president donald trump to be his running size this year.
Scott, a rarity as a black Republican senator from the South, tells his story with a rags-to-riches flourish, crediting Moniz with helping to pull him out of a dead-end life before Moniz died suddenly while Scott was still in college. But Scott’s own role in seizing the opportunities that came his way is also part of the story.
From Moniz, Scott says, he learned the ins and outs of business, how to be a good citizen, and less tangible lessons about how to give before you can receive. Scott used that guidance as he moved from business to politics.
Haley appointed him to the Senate seat in late 2012 after Republican Jim DeMint resigned. That appointment further stimulated a political career that had seen Scott rise from the county council to the South Carolina Statehouse and Congress. Since then, Scott has proven to be a force in his own right, both with South Carolina voters and the state’s political class.
He polled 60% all three times he ran in Senate elections, building a network of supporters as formidable as any in the state. He largely stayed above internal party strife and made more friends with the powerful than enemies.
In his wake he left a trail of true believers.
“President Trump, if you want a good, honest man who won’t embarrass you or embarrass this country, Tim Scott is the one you need,” said Robert Brown, the mayor of Hampton, a city with about 2,600 inhabitants in the southern part. of the state.
Republican Sen. Bill Taylor, who was given Scott’s parking space in the South Carolina Statehouse when Scott moved to the U.S. House, said you couldn’t ask for a more compelling story.
“He is like the embodiment of the American Dream,” Taylor said. “He is a preacher for it.”
Still, not every move Scott has made has ended in success. Scott had hoped his backstory would fuel his presidential run this year, but… his campaign was quickly overwhelmed through the shadow of Trump.
Scott initially demonstrated a fundraising prowess among donors uncomfortable with Trump, but then he all but disappeared from the debate stage, even without Trump present. Scott’s candidacy was further complicated by the fact that South Carolina had a second candidate in Haley.
But after Scott quit, he turned on Haley, who had elevated him above friends and alliesScott didn’t hesitate to criticize Haley’s record in South Carolina and became one of Trump’s biggest supporters after leaving the race.
That demonstration of where his loyalties lie was not lost on Trump, who is known to measure fellow Republicans in terms of their loyalty to him.
“You know, you’re a much better candidate for me than you were for yourself. I mean it. He was a different person,” Trump said at a rally in February. “And I say that with admiration. Because I’m the opposite. I’m much better for myself than I would be for anybody else.”
If Trump takes a different direction for his vice president, Scott faces an uncertain path forward. He pledged when he took the U.S. Senate job to serve only two full six-year terms, a pledge he reiterated in 2022 when he was elected to a second full term.
If Trump doesn’t call or loses the ticket in November, Scott’s supporters have suggestions.
“I’m not going to hold him to that. Circumstances change. Tim could be one of Trump’s greatest allies in the Senate,” Taylor said of Scott’s pledge. “I’ve always liked to say — Tim, when you’re done with all that stuff over there, come home and run for governor.”
As the South Carolina governor’s seat opens up in 2026 and his supporters continue to put up Scott trial balloons, the senator himself has dismissed the idea. His approval ratings in the state took a modest hit during his presidential campaign.
At 58, there could be more presidential candidates.
Lewis Brown, who voted in the recent South Carolina primary, said Scott’s campaign convinced him Scott has the stuff for the White House.
“I look at one thing for a vice presidential candidate: Can you become president?” said Lewis. “Scott passes that test with flying colors.”
Whatever Trump decides, Scott has another big life change ahead of him. He is getting married later this year.
While he waits for Trump to make a decision, Scott is a regular guest on news programs on behalf of the former president. He is making headlines by dodging questions about whether he would accept the outcome of the 2024 election if Trump loses, or by ignoring Trump’s support for tariffs, which the senator has long opposed.
It’s a new test of loyalty for a man trying to take advantage of another opportunity, someone who has always tried to burn as few bridges behind him as possible – though his relationship with Haley has certainly suffered as a result.
But holding a grudge isn’t Scott’s style, at least not in public.
At another rally in South Carolina in February, Trump rattled off criticism of Haley, who had become increasingly forceful in her criticism of him. Trump then pointed to Scott who was standing behind him.
“She actually appointed you, Tim,” Trump said. “You must really hate her.”
The senator wasn’t having it. He awkwardly walked to the microphone and then simply said, “I just love you.”