Tim Scott

Tim Scott is a U.S. Senator from South Carolina who has been floated as a potential pick for vice president, since ending his own presidential bid last year and endorsing Trump. Scott’s “Great Opportunity PAC” recently announced it would spend $14 million on a pro-Trump campaign targeting voters of color. Scott’s PAC also held a fundraiser for GOP mega donors; at the time, the New York Times noted that “A financial show of force for Mr. Scott’s group could lift his chances of being selected by Mr. Trump.”

Scott repeatedly refused to commit to accepting the 2024 election results if Joe Biden were to win. For example, on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Scott asserted in response to questions about accepting the results that “At the end of the day, the 47th president of the United States will be President Donald Trump.” Scott eventually said he would certify the 2024 election results. He previously declined to say whether he would have certified the 2020 election results had he been vice president at the time, instead of Mike Pence.

On the violent Jan. 6 insurrection, Scott has said, “The one person I don’t blame is President Trump.” Scott previously claimed “there was cheating” in the 2020 election and fueled fears of mail-in ballots. When asked about Trump’s criminal convictions, Scott claimed “The Black guys I’m talking to around South Carolina … are fed up with this two-tiered justice system.” Yet, Scott has claimed “America is not a racist country” and that there is not systemic racism in the U.S. Scott has refused to join the Congressional Black Caucus.

When asked about his policy differences from Trump, Scott replied that there were “[p]robably not very many at all. I am so thankful that we had President Trump in office.” Scott backed many of Trump’s immigration policies, including diverting funds to the border wall that Trump had promised Mexico would pay for. Scott has also supported tax cuts for the rich and voted against protections for LGBTQ+ Americans. He has asserted that “the Constitution was constructed to protect the church from government, not the government from the church,” ignoring the bar in the Constitution against the establishment of religion and any religious test or oath for office.

He has taken extreme positions against access to abortion. When he was running for president, Scott boasted he “would literally sign the most conservative pro-life legislation that they can get through Congress.” He repeatedly co-sponsored the Life at Conception Act, which would ban abortion and would threaten IVF access nationwide. This year, he also voted against protecting IVF and against a right to access contraception.

Scott became a U.S. Senator after then-South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley chose him to replace Jim DeMint, who had stepped down to run Heritage Action in 2012. (Heritage Action is the 501(c)(4) arm of the Heritage Foundation, which launched Project 2025.) As an insurance salesman, he served for 15 years on the Charleson County Council and then briefly in the state legislature.