Senator Tim Scott has been raising eyebrows and questions, being the only GOP presidential primary candidate who is unmarried.
However, Scott says his supporters will soon be introduced to his girlfriend further along the campaign trail.
“I have a wonderful girlfriend, and we have a wonderful relationship,” Scott said on Fox News. “The good news is that God has blessed me with a smart, Christian woman. That’s great news, but more importantly is, why are the headlines there? The headlines are there because as I rise in the polls, as people show up at night in my town halls, it scares even my opponents,” he said, adding that an introduction would be “at some point.”
Scott is 57, has never been married, and very little of his love life has been carried out in the public eye. While some welcome Scott’s uncomplicated and seemingly unconventional lifestyle (at least by political standards), others are using his lifestyle to sound the alarm.
Republican presidential candidate Tim Scott says his GOP critics are raising questions about his girlfriend because “as I rise in the polls…it scares even my opponents.” Scott is polling at 1 percent in the latest poll released today.pic.twitter.com/2oZWV5RDyS
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) September 11, 2023
“He has staked so much on his personal story, character and faith,” an anonymous operative told The Washington Post. “He’s running as America’s pastor, so to speak, as he courts evangelicals in Iowa, and I think a lot of folks may wonder about his lack of a family.”
Scott is currently in fifth place with just 2% of voter support in the polls. Former President Donald Trump leads DeSantis by 43 percentage points. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is backed by 6%, followed closely by former Vice President Mike Pence.
Scott asserts that his supporters do not care about his marital status.
“People plant stories that have conversations to distract from our rise in the polls, to distract from our size of our audience,” Scott said via NBC News. “What we’ve seen is that poll after poll says that the voters don’t care, but it seems like opponents do care, and so media coverage that opponents plant — it’s OK. Good news is we just keep fighting the good fight.”
