Sen. Tim Scott said he would back former President Donald Trump if he ran for president again in 2024, The Post and Courier has reported.
When the South Carolina Republican was asked at the First In The South Republican Action Conference in Myrtle Beach if he would back a Trump campaign for the White House, he answered “of course” and then declined to say if he was interested in the presidency himself.
“Well, at this point, I’m not running for president at all,” Scott said. “I’m not going to answer a hypothetical question.”
Scott added that he was concentrating on his reelection campaign for Senate next year.
He also indicated that he did not have an interest in being vice president if Trump chose him for the post.
There has been speculation that Scott, the only black Republican in the Senate and considered a rising star in the GOP, has had aspirations for a White House run, especially after his trip last month to New Hampshire, which has the first primary in the presidential nominating calendar, Fox News reported.
Although Scott has been critical of some of Trump’s rhetoric in the past, he did defend the president’s policies while he was in the White House and worked with him on a police reform bill, according to The Hill.
Much of the conference in Myrtle Beach centered on a potential reelection bid by Trump, with former Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus declaring that “the odds of President Trump running for president are somewhere near 100%,” adding that “I think he will be the nominee of the party.”
Scott is expected to easily win his reelection campaign in South Carolina, but has indicated that he does not plan to run again for a third term.