CONCORD, N.H. — Facing questions over the durability of his Republican campaign for president, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina insists “we’re actually great moving forward.”
The super PAC aligned with Scott earlier this week canceled its massive ad blitz on behalf of the senator’s 2024 campaign.
Trust In the Mission PAC, also known as “TIM PAC,” emphasized in a memo that “we aren’t going to waste our money when the electorate isn’t focused or ready” for an alternative to former President Donald Trump, the commanding front-runner for the GOP nomination.
And Scott’s campaign filed its July-September third quarter fundraising report, showing that it spent a lot more money than it raked in the past three months. The two developments, along with the senator’s flatlining in the polls in the crucial early voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire and his home state, fed a negative narrative questioning Scott’s ability to win the GOP nomination.
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“I’m OK,” Scott emphasized when asked by Fox News Digital if his presidential campaign was in trouble.
Scott, who took questions from reporters after filing at the Statehouse in Concord to place his name on the ballot in New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation Republican presidential primary, spotlighted “two really good pieces of news.”
“Number one — I don’t control my super PAC. That’s just really good news. I can’t tell you exactly what they’re thinking over there,” the senator said.
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Pointing to the Israel-Hamas war, which has dominated news coverage the past two weeks, Scott noted that “breaking through in this current cycle of news focused right where it should be, on Israel, is very difficult. So, if you’re going to use your resources effectively, I’m glad that they’re making the decision to use those resources as we end this year hitting the first caucus and turning their attention to the first-in-the-nation primary.”
“Better news is that from a campaign account perspective, we still have more money than any candidate in the race save Donald Trump,” Scott touted. “And so our ability to continue to move forward from my campaign, which I do control, is very strong.”
Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate and a rising star in the GOP, entered the presidential race in the spring on high notes and with his campaign coffers stocked with over $20 million left over from his overwhelming re-election last November.
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But after dishing out roughly $14 million to run ads, Scott’s cash-on-hand was down to $13.3 million at the end of last month.
Scott’s poll numbers are also edging down in the early voting states — and he stood at just 1% in the most recent Fox News national survey of the Republican race.
Asked what he needs to do moving forward — with less than three months to go until the Jan. 15 Iowa caucuses kick off the GOP nominating calendar — Scott pointed to retail politics, saying “the more time I spend talking to people, the better off we are.”
“I spent a disproportionate amount of my time doing my day job being in the Senate, and just recently spent more time on the road the past couple of weeks,” he explained. “I need to make sure that I continue to invest more time on the road to meet the voters and I think I’ll win them over.”