Timothy Eugene Scott was born on September 19,1965 and is an American businessman and politician serving as the junior United States senator from South Carolina since 2013.
54 Facts About Tim Scott
2.
Tim Scott retained his seat after winning a special election in 2014, and was elected to full terms in 2016 and 2022.
3.
Tim Scott is one of 11 African-Americans to have served in the US Senate, and the first to have served in both chambers of Congress.
4.
Tim Scott is the seventh African-American elected to the Senate and the fourth from the Republican Party.
5.
Tim Scott is the first African-American senator from South Carolina, the first African-American senator to be elected from the Southern United States since 1881, and the first African-American Republican to serve in the Senate since Edward Brooke departed in 1979.
6.
Tim Scott's parents divorced when he was seven years old, and he grew up in working-class poverty with his mother, who worked 16-hour days to support the family.
7.
Tim Scott's older brother is a sergeant major in the US Army.
8.
Tim Scott attended Presbyterian College from 1983 to 1984 on a partial football scholarship; he graduated from Charleston Southern University in 1988 with a Bachelor of Science degree in political science.
9.
Tim Scott is an alumnus of South Carolina's Palmetto Boys State program, an experience he cites as influential in his decision to enter public service.
10.
Tim Scott ran in a February 1995 special election for the Charleston County Council at-large seat vacated by Keith Summey, who resigned after he was elected mayor of North Charleston.
11.
Tim Scott became the first black Republican elected to any office in South Carolina since the late 19th century.
12.
Tim Scott was reelected to the County Council in 2000, again winning in white-majority districts.
13.
Tim Scott served on the council from 1995 until 2009, becoming chairman in 2007.
14.
The county council unanimously approved the display, and Tim Scott nailed a King James version of the Commandments to the wall.
15.
Tim Scott won the general election unopposed, becoming the first Republican African-American State Representative in South Carolina in more than 100 years.
16.
Tim Scott supported South Carolina's right-to-work laws and argued that Boeing chose South Carolina as a site for manufacturing for that reason.
17.
Tim Scott entered the election for lieutenant governor but switched to run for South Carolina's 1st congressional district after Republican incumbent Henry Brown announced his retirement.
18.
Tim Scott was endorsed by the Club for Growth, various Tea Party movement groups, former Alaska governor and vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, Republican House Whip Eric Cantor, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, and South Carolina Senator and Minuteman Project founder Jim DeMint.
19.
Tim Scott became the first African-American Republican elected to Congress from South Carolina in 114 years.
20.
In March 2011, Tim Scott co-sponsored a welfare reform bill that would deny food stamps to families whose incomes declined to the point of eligibility because a family member was participating in a labor strike.
21.
Tim Scott introduced legislation in July 2011 to strip the National Labor Relations Board of its power to prohibit employers from relocating to punish workers who join unions or strike.
22.
Tim Scott described the legislation as a commonsense proposal that would fix a flaw in federal labor policy and benefit the national and local economies.
23.
Tim Scott said the project was merit-based and in the national interest because larger cargo ships could use the port and jobs would be created.
24.
Tim Scott was later appointed to the Committee on Rules and relinquished his other two assignments.
25.
On December 17,2012, South Carolina governor Nikki Haley announced she would appoint Tim Scott to replace retiring Senator Jim DeMint, who had previously announced that he would retire from the Senate to become the President of The Heritage Foundation.
26.
Tim Scott is the first African-American US senator from South Carolina.
27.
Tim Scott was one of three black US Senators in the 113th Congress, alongside Mo Cowan and later Cory Booker.
28.
Tim Scott is the first African-American to be a US senator from the Southern United States since Reconstruction.
29.
Tim Scott earned this seat with the results he has shown.
30.
Tim Scott ran to serve the final two years of DeMint's term and won.
31.
In February 2019, Tim Scott was one of 16 senators to vote against legislation preventing a partial government shutdown and containing $1.375 billion for barriers along the US-Mexico border that included 55 miles of fencing.
32.
On May 28,2021, Tim Scott voted against creating an independent commission to investigate the 2021 US Capitol attack.
33.
Tim Scott led the drafting of a bill on race and police reform.
34.
In late 2022, it was reported that several US senators, such as John Barrasso, John Cornyn, and Joni Ernst, had encouraged Tim Scott to run for President of the United States in the 2024 election.
35.
In February 2023, it was reported that Tim Scott was preparing for a presidential run.
36.
Tim Scott announced a "listening tour" that would include a Black History Month event in Charleston, South Carolina, as the tour's first stop and then hosted events and speeches throughout Iowa, the first state to vote in the 2024 Republican presidential primaries.
37.
Tim Scott believes that federal spending and taxes should be reduced, with a Balanced Budget Amendment and the FairTax respectively implemented for spending and taxes.
38.
Tim Scott has said that US health care is among the greatest in the world, that people all over the world come to study in American medical schools, waiting lists are rare, and that Americans are able to choose their insurance, providers, and course of treatment.
39.
In January 2019, Tim Scott was one of six senators to cosponsor the Health Insurance Tax Relief Act, delaying the Health Insurance Tax for two years.
40.
Tim Scott proposed the opportunity zone designation in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.
41.
Tim Scott has been a vocal opponent of abortion and supports the United States anti-abortion movement.
42.
Tim Scott supports strengthening penalties for employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.
43.
Tim Scott promotes cultural assimilation by making English the official language in the government and requiring new immigrants to learn English.
44.
Tim Scott opposes a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
45.
Tim Scott introduced a bill that would deny food stamps to families whose incomes declined to the point of eligibility because a family member was participating in a labor strike.
46.
Tim Scott advocated continued military presence in Afghanistan and believed early withdrawal would benefit al-Qaeda.
47.
In January 2018, Tim Scott was one of 36 Republican senators to sign a letter seeking to preserve the North American Free Trade Agreement by modernizing it for the 21st century.
48.
In 2017, Tim Scott was one of 22 senators to sign a letter to President Donald Trump urging him to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement.
49.
Tim Scott did not support the nomination of Ryan Bounds to the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, effectively killing the nomination.
50.
In November 2018, Scott bucked his party in opposing the nomination of Thomas A Farr for a federal judgeship.
51.
Tim Scott coordinated several 'ballot security' activities in 1984, including a postcard mailing to voters in predominantly black precincts that was designed to serve as a basis to challenge voters on election day.
52.
Tim Scott called upon Trump to delete his tweets that attacked demonstrators against the murder of George Floyd.
53.
Tim Scott advocated that Trump delete his retweet of supporters chanting "white power", which he soon did.
54.
Tim Scott owns an insurance agency and is a partner in Pathway Real Estate Group, LLC Scott is an evangelical Protestant and a member of Seacoast Church, a large evangelical church in Charleston.