Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) is poised to announce his 2024 Republican White House campaign with an optimistic message that has been compared to that of President Ronald Reagan.
But as this cycle’s Republican primary starts to crystallize, GOP voters will have to decide whether they want a statesman nominee or a bare-knuckled brawler, such as former President Donald Trump or Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), who can jab at President Joe Biden and liberals at large.
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The words “Biden,” “woke,” and “fighter” will dominate this Republican primary as they did during the last two elections, according to GOP strategist Douglas Heye.
“There’s an appetite in the base for somebody who is a fighter to the extent that you don’t actually have to land punches or win a round; you just have to show your willingness to fight,” Heye said. “The thing I’ve heard so often from voters, especially when I’m home in Carolina, Republican voters, is ‘I just want somebody who’s gonna stand up to them, somebody who’s gonna fight.'”
“And then when it gets nowhere, they get credit for trying,” he added. “That’s not the entire party because there are a lot of Republicans who want to see actual results, but that appetite for somebody who is purely there to fight is very real.”
Former Arkansas GOP Gov. Asa Hutchinson is a declared Republican primary candidate seeking a similar political lane to Scott but who has become more critical of Trump, especially since the onetime president was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury in March for covering up hush money payments before the 2016 election. Hutchinson is confident the country is open to “new leadership.”
“They are seeking leaders that are focused on what is in front of us, just over the horizon, rather than what is in our rearview mirror,” the governor told the Washington Examiner. “They do not want a brawler but rather a leader who will both fight for us and lead with character and compassion.”
“I am a consistent conservative who embodies the values that our party has always held, and I have an optimistic vision of our future,” he said. “That is how we bring out the best of America.”
But Scott, whose lack of national name recognition notches him an average of 2% support in early primary polls, embarks on his bid in his hometown of North Charleston on Monday behind Trump’s 56% and DeSantis’s 20%, according to RealClearPolitics. Hutchinson has 1% support, behind former Vice President Mike Pence‘s 6%, onetime U.N. Ambassador and South Carolina GOP Gov. Nikki Haley‘s 5%, multimillionaire entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy‘s 3.5%, and radio talk show host Larry Elder‘s 1%. Ex-New Jersey GOP Gov. Chris Christie, an undeclared candidate who has pledged to be aggressive against Trump, also has 1% support.
For Heye, authenticity underpins any declared or undeclared candidate’s appeal to Republican primary voters. But he underscored how Scott will have to eventually differentiate himself from Trump and the rest of the field.
“He’s certainly mindful of that, and the question then becomes when do you do that and in what manner,” the former Republican National Committee spokesman said. “But his campaign is always going to be optimistic. I don’t think there’s any way it could not be.”
Scott’s announcement Monday, preceded by a $6 million broadcast TV, cable, satellite, and radio advertisement buy in early primary states Iowa and New Hampshire, coincides with DeSantis’s own plans to enter the Republican nomination race. The governor is expected to file paperwork with the Federal Election Commission and hold a launch event in Florida within the coming weeks.
Notwithstanding Scott’s announcement, Trump and DeSantis are fixated on one another, escalating their attacks in public and private. The former president’s so-called super political action committee MAGA, Inc. has spent more than $12.5 million criticizing the governor in the past seven weeks, including Friday’s “Ron DeSalesTax” ad and commenting on Disney‘s decision not to develop a campus at Lake Nona, Florida. DeSantis’s group, Never Back Down, has responded with about $10 million. Biden and the Democratic National Committee have spent $1.6 million combined.
“You have basically three people at this point that are credible in this whole thing,” DeSantis told donors Thursday during a Never Back Down-hosted fundraising call, “Biden, Trump, and me. And I think of those three, two have a chance to get elected president — Biden and me.”
In contrast to Scott’s optimism, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung contended Republican voters are “energized” to support Trump because he has been “proven right once again,” particularly after special counsel John Durham‘s investigation into how the FBI probed the former president’s 2016 bid’s relationship with Russia.
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“The DOJ, FBI, Democrats, and establishment media all colluded with each other to mislead the American people about President Trump in order to derail his presidency and his candidacy in 2020,” Cheung said. “They are shamelessly running the same playbook currently to influence the 2024 election.”
“Voters are also angry about Biden and his disastrous economic policies after he was handed the best economy in the world,” he went on. “Biden’s border crisis has also made American communities less safe by allowing criminals and drugs to cross the border unfettered.”
