Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, who tried carving out an area within the Republican presidential area with a hopeful message constructed on his life story — the son of a single mom, he rose from poverty to grow to be the one Black Republican within the Senate — introduced on Sunday that he was suspending his marketing campaign.
“I believe the voters, who’re probably the most outstanding individuals on the planet, have been actually clear that they’re telling me, ‘Not now, Tim,’” Mr. Scott mentioned on Sunday night on Trey Gowdy’s program on Fox Information. “I don’t suppose they’re saying, Trey, ‘No.’ However I do suppose they’re saying, ‘Not now.’”
Mr. Scott mentioned he had no intention of endorsing one other candidate within the Republican main race. “One of the simplest ways for me to be useful is to not weigh in,” he mentioned. He additionally dismissed the concept that he might function another person’s operating mate. “Being vice chairman has by no means been on my to-do checklist,” he mentioned.
Mr. Scott’s choice was in some ways unsurprising: He has struggled in polls and with fund-raising, and would have needed to hit a brand new threshold of 80,000 donors in addition to a better quantity in public opinion surveys with a view to qualify for the subsequent debate sponsored by the Republican Nationwide Committee, which will likely be held in December.
Nonetheless, he saved his plan to droop his marketing campaign shut: Three individuals accustomed to the matter mentioned various employees members had discovered of it from watching tv.
He had begun Sunday with a cryptic message on X, previously often known as Twitter, that cited Proverbs: “Belief within the Lord with all of your coronary heart and lean not by yourself understanding; in all of your methods undergo Him, and He’ll make your paths straight.”
Mr. Scott, 58, entered the race in Could, pledging a special form of message from the usually apocalyptic tenor of some within the Republican area, together with the front-runner, former President Donald J. Trump.
However Mr. Scott’s model of sunny optimism discovered no traction within the trendy G.O.P., the place the impulse among the many occasion’s core voters, inspired by Mr. Trump, is to be combative. He discovered himself crowded out within the race to grow to be the highest Republican various to Mr. Trump by rivals together with Nikki Haley, a fellow South Carolinian and former governor of the state, and Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida.
Mr. Scott started his marketing campaign with $22 million in fund-raising, a considerable conflict chest that put him ready of economic energy. He spent thousands and thousands of {dollars} on tv adverts bolstering his candidacy, however his ballot numbers remained stagnant, and he by no means produced a breakout second on the marketing campaign path.
The tremendous PAC supporting him, fueled by $30 million in donations in 2022 from the Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, introduced in mid-October that after seeing no progress for Mr. Scott, it was slicing thousands and thousands of {dollars} in tv advert reservations it had scheduled for the autumn months.
Mr. Scott’s momentum appeared to take a success after the primary presidential main debate, when he was criticized for seeming reluctant to enter the fray. Mr. Scott made it to the third debate, which had elevated polling and donor thresholds, solely by the narrowest of margins and largely caught to acquainted speaking factors.
He was additionally by no means significantly all for attacking Mr. Trump. And Mr. Trump wasn’t all for attacking Mr. Scott both, telling aides that he preferred the South Carolina senator and deliberate to say solely good issues about him.