‘It was safe’: Black Republicans are disappointed in Tim Scott

Simply put, to many black conservatives, Scott appeared to be running a campaign that was more geared toward mollifying the GOP’s largely non-diverse public than running a truly authentic campaign that could move the party beyond its tensions of white nationalism.

“He didn’t stoop to being a black man,” said Deana Bass Williams, a longtime Republican strategist who worked on Ben Carson’s 2016 presidential campaign.

“I always see the need to aggressively engage the black public, period,” he said, pointing to a steady stream of polls indicating black voters are cooling off on Democrats. Those voters might naturally gravitate toward a campaign if it had a sharper message. But instead, he said, Scott played it safe, not wanting to “frighten” a largely white Republican base that may reject identity politics.

Scott’s exit from the primary comes at a time of opportunity for Republicans. Biden’s softening support among black voters is seen as a growing weakness for Democrats. These voters show a willingness to entertain other candidates. Black Republican critics of Scott need to diagnose what went wrong. While some fellow black Republicans accused Scott of avoiding the issue of race, others criticized him for not using his devout faith to draw contrasts with other candidates.

“I think if Tim Scott had taken [Donald] Trump talks more about the issues of morality and what evangelicals really believe…I think he really could [have] shook things up,” said conservative talk show host Armstrong Williams.

Scott didn’t completely shy away from discussing race on the campaign trail. He slammed former President Barack Obama’s handling of race relations, saying he “missed this opportunity” to bring the country together during an interview with Mark Levin, conservative talk show host. He also traveled to Chicago last month to deliver his presentation to a mostly black audience at New Beginnings Church, criticizing Democrats who “spent decades playing down on crime, defending failing schools, undermining the traditional values ​​and weakening capitalism”.

Perhaps his most notable moment was when he squared off with Ron DeSantis on the Florida gubernatorial debate stage. your state’s school curriculum teaching that slaves acquired useful work skills.

“There is no redeeming quality in slavery,” Scott replied. “America has suffered because of slavery, but we have overcome that.”

Many of the black Republicans POLITICO spoke with pointed to that exchange as one of Scott’s best performances of his candidacy. They look back on the suspended campaign and wonder if they could have done more.

Among the times they cited as examples where Scott leaned more aggressively on the issue of race in particular was in July 2016. At the time, he was in the well of the Senate to share in vivid detail his experiences of being pulled over seven times by police officers as an elected official “for just driving a new car in the wrong neighborhood or for some other equally trivial reason.” He also delivered a rebuttal to President Joe Biden’s joint address to Congress in 2021 in which he proclaimed: “America is not a racist country“.

The basic premise of Scott’s campaign seemed to elude many Republicans. Even his rivals have hailed him as “a good man” and a “leader of our party for years to come”. But he never managed to differentiate himself from the field, despite the historical possibilities of his candidacy. Many pondered whether Scott’s years in Congress dulled his sense of what voters want from his presidential candidates.

Scott came off as “a boring old politician,” said one black Republican who has experience in presidential politics and was granted anonymity to speak candidly about Scott’s campaign. This person suggested that Scott did not stand out enough in the field, even when he had something unique to offer.

Others pointed out that Scott hasn’t had to compete in an election in a while, and that showed on the debate stage and ultimately reflected in his low polling position.

Scott ultimately dropped out of the presidential race months before a single vote was cast, trailing former President Donald Trump, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. DeSantis. Even after that debate showdown with DeSantis, Scott never saw a noticeable uptick in the polls. It never topped 5 percent in national field polls.

This, in many ways, is the most surprising aspect of Scott’s presidential run. Other candidates with no political experience enjoyed an uptick in the polls during their races in previous cycles. Herman Cain, the Godfather pizza mogul who used the slogan “9-9-9” to describe his tax plan, rode a wave of tea party enthusiasm to the top of the polls presidential elections in 2011.

Carson, the retired pediatric neurosurgeon who eventually became HUD secretary in the Trump administration, surged similarly in the polls in the months leading up to the 2016 primaries. At one point he surpassed Trump in some surveys

“Their campaigns were more celebrity-driven,” said veteran GOP strategist Elroy Sailor. “Tim Scott’s campaign is not celebrity-driven.” Instead, Sailor said, Scott’s campaign was driven by “politics, organization and government.”

Sailor added that Scott’s campaign also showed something that other black Republican presidential hopefuls could not.

“I think he’s shown that you can raise money. That’s one of the first criticisms that there was before about African-American Republicans that we didn’t have the ability to raise money,” Sailor said. “So I think he’s crossed that Rubicon.”

The biggest question facing Scott now is whether his campaign missed an opportunity to do more with his unique candidacy, or if in this current GOP, his moment will never materialize.

Echoing what Scott told his good friend and former teammate Trey Gowdy during his televised interview on Fox News Sunday nightCJ Pearson, a conservative Gen Z activist, said the South Carolina senator recognized that this was not the right time for his presidential ambitions.

“It’s not really his time,” laments Pearson. “I think people really want a fighter and I think often, you don’t really get that vibe from Tim Scott.”

A version of this also appears in the November 14 restatement newsletter. For more coverage of race, identity and politics, subscribe to The Recast here.