Republican nominee Tim Scott withdraws from the race for the White House

South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, one of the Republican Party's candidates for president of the United States in the November 2024 elections and the only black senator in his party, announced late on Sunday his withdrawal from the race for the White House.

In an interview with the conservative Fox News channel, Scott, 57, said, "I love America even more than I did on May 22. But when he returns to Iowa (where the caucus and primary campaign begins) it won't be as a presidential hopeful. I'm canceling my campaign."

The announcement has taken the candidate's donors and campaign workers by surprise. Scott hadn't warned them in advance of his decision. But the candidate had struggled to raise donations, had consumed most of his funds at high speed and had failed to take off in the polls, where he achieved a voting intention of less than 4%. In Iowa, polls gave him fourth place, behind the great favorite, former President Donald Trump; Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikky Haley.

He was put to the nail in the coffin in the most recent debate of the Republican candidates, the third, last Wednesday in Miami, Florida, in which he failed to make much of an impression on the public despite mixing a more combative attitude with the optimistic message he has displayed in his five months of campaigning. "I think the voters, who are the coolest people on the planet, have made it really clear to me that they're saying, 'Not now, Tim,'" he told Fox News.

During his campaign, he had presented himself as a very conservative candidate but more capable of reducing the deep divisions in the American electorate than rivals such as DeSantis or Trump himself, whom he was always careful not to openly criticize.

But that white-collar treatment of the former president caused him a problem shared by the vast majority of that party's group of White House hopefuls: the inability to convince the electorate why they should vote for him and not the Republican front-runner.

He had initially garnered significant support from donors, believing he had a better chance of defeating Democratic President Joe Biden if he made it to the final stretch of the campaign. His supporters also perceived him as more acceptable to independent voters than other candidates opposed to aid to Ukraine, such as the governor of Florida.

By October, however, those donors had cooled down. After last week's debate, they decided not to continue their investments in television advertising. With coffers dwindling, the senator had few options left to continue in the race.

Deeply religious and an avid Bible quoter, the senator likes to talk about his roots as the grandson of a laborer in the cotton fields of the American South. Raised by a single mother who worked long hours overtime as a nursing assistant to support him and his brother, young Scott earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Charleston Southern University. He has described himself as a mediocre student, who after graduating and before entering politics opened an insurance business. Southern University before opening an insurance business.

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