{"id":629070,"date":"2023-04-13T15:16:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-13T20:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/13\/tim-scott-wants-the-evangelical-vote-so-does-every-other-republican-candidate\/"},"modified":"2023-04-13T15:16:00","modified_gmt":"2023-04-13T20:16:00","slug":"tim-scott-wants-the-evangelical-vote-so-does-every-other-republican-candidate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/13\/tim-scott-wants-the-evangelical-vote-so-does-every-other-republican-candidate\/","title":{"rendered":"Tim Scott Wants the Evangelical Vote. So Does Every Other Republican Candidate"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The 2024 Republican primary is still in its beginning stages, but the once-sparse evangelical lane is already turning into a multicandidate pileup. On Wednesday, Senator Tim Scott<\/strong> of South Carolina became the latest Republican to drape his presidential ambitions in religious branding, following a trail already blazed by former vice president Mike Pence,<\/strong> former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley,<\/strong> and\u2014to a lesser extent<\/a>\u2014Florida governor Ron DeSantis.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI will defend the Judeo-Christian foundation our nation is built on and protect our religious liberty,\u201d Scott declared in a video announcing his exploratory committee. Touting his antiabortion record, he also promised to \u201cprotect our most fundamental right: the right to life itself.\u201d And in his first public event since launching his exploratory committee, per Politico<\/a>, Scott met with a group of pastors and homeschool families in Iowa, home to the GOP\u2019s first-in-the-nation primary caucus.<\/p>\n

In past elections, this message may have positioned Scott alongside former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee<\/strong> in 2008 or former senator Rick Santorum<\/strong> of Pennsylvania in 2012, whose campaigns typified a bygone era in which evangelical candidates were relatively novel. However, as Republicans have increasingly raced to the right on social issues, that paradigm now appears to have flipped, putting Scott up against a raft of competition.<\/p>\n

After launching her campaign in February, Haley has likewise embarked on an evangelical messaging blitz, appearing<\/a> alongside celebrity pastors, speaking<\/a> at Christian universities, and meeting<\/a> with evangelical political groups. One of her only notable backers<\/a> so far is John Hagee,<\/strong> an infamous<\/a> televangelist routinely courted by Republican presidential hopefuls.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Pence\u2014whose history in evangelical politics spans decades\u2014has employed a similar strategy, speaking at numerous evangelical<\/a> institutions<\/a> to promote So Help Me God,<\/em> a memoir of his time in the White House. Last month, he even used faith to poke fun at Donald Trump,<\/strong> far and away the favorite for the Republican nomination. \u201cI read that some of those classified documents they found at Mar-a-Lago were actually stuck in the president\u2019s Bible,\u201d Pence said<\/a>, \u201cwhich proves he had absolutely no idea they were there.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the aftermath of the GOP\u2019s disappointing midterm last year, several evangelical leaders launched<\/a> their own broadsides against Trump, who they believe will sink the party in 2024 should he secure the nomination. But there is little evidence suggesting that the conservative base has taken these warnings to heart: Trump, despite his ever-growing legal woes, continues to make steady gains among likely Republican voters, according to data<\/a> from FiveThirtyEight, which estimates his support at nearly 50%. Pence and Haley, meanwhile, are hovering in the mid-to-low single digits, while, according to Time,<\/em> Scott is polling<\/a> at roughly 1% nationally. Even in his home state, the appetite for \u201cTim Scott 2024\u201d is marginal: A recent Winthrop University survey<\/a> of likely Republican voters in South Carolina had him at only 7%, 11 points below Haley.<\/p>\n

But that poor showing has not shaken Scott\u2019s confidence. Asked whether he would support Trump if he wins the Republican nomination, Scott told<\/a> CBS News on Wednesday, \u201cI plan on being the nominee. Obviously, I have an exploratory committee moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Scott has tried to position himself<\/a> as a bipartisan problem solver in Washington, the three-minute ad he released Wednesday tested a far more combative message. In it, the senator can be seen strolling past retired batteries stationed on Fort Sumter, the South Carolina island attacked by Confederate forces in the opening shots of the Civil War. Just as in 1861, Scott argued, America is being strained by internal divisions\u2014a split fomented by \u201cJoe Biden<\/strong> and the radical left\u201d in an attempt to consolidate their power. The spot ended with an evangelical battle cry of sorts: \u201cThis is a fight we must win, and that will take faith,\u201d Scott said. \u201cFaith in God.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Caleb Ecarma<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2024 Republican primary is still in its beginning stages, but the once-sparse evangelical lane is already turning into a multicandidate pileup. On Wednesday, Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina became the latest Republican to drape his presidential ambitions in religious branding, following a trail already blazed by former vice president Mike Pence, former South […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":629071,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[534,596,91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-629070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-financial","category-scott","category-wants"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}