South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, a contender to be former President Donald Trump’s running mate, is launching a multimillion dollar effort to recruit Black voters to support Republicans in 2024.
The effort will target swing and low propensity Black and Latino voters. Scott will tour battleground states and host smaller events in the coming weeks as he makes direct appeals to voters of color, with the hope that they will shift their support to the GOP.
The plan, which is being backed by Scott’s Great Opportunity PAC, is to spend more than $14 million, including $5 million on earned and paid media. It will focus primarily on Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania, where thin margins may determine the outcome of the presidential election.
A source familiar with the plans said that the goal is to get started as soon as possible. The Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign are aware of the initiative, and the source said that they plan to be a resource where needed and vice versa. But, the source said, this wasn’t a directive from the Trump campaign.
Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, argued Black voters and other minorities are turning to the GOP because of the contrast between the Trump years and the Biden administration, which he deems a failure on the economy, the border and crime.
“A lot of reasons why the shift is becoming just so blatantly obvious that it’s now undeniable that there is something amiss,” Scott said at a briefing this week with reporters in Washington, DC. “It’s not just racial, but it’s going to manifest itself in a racial shift that we haven’t seen in probably three decades of politics.”
“What we haven’t had before was a recent president on the right vs. the current president on the left. And that translates into a lot of ticked off people who are looking at the Republican Party,” he said.
Scott says working class Americans and African American men in particular are wide open for a political shift. He’ll tout what he characterizes as wins under the Trump administration, like forgiving debt for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and the signing of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Central to his argument is that many Black voters are faith oriented and culturally conservative and they are not voting in alignment with their social values by continuing to support Democrats.
Scott believes this message will resonate in places like Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Detroit – all major cities in key battleground states.
The senator also stressed the importance of showing up in places where Republicans aren’t typically welcome. Trump recently had a campaign event in the Bronx, a county that voted overwhelmingly for Biden over Trump in 2020, according to CNN’s election results.
“I’ve been talking about this for years that we have to go where we’re not invited,” Scott said. “We have just not had enough candidates doing that from the party, and now we do, and we’re gonna see the results that are consistent with that.”
This effort from Scott comes at a time when the Biden campaign sees cracks in their support from Black voters.
A New York Times/Siena College survey of battleground states released in May found Trump winning more than 20% of Black voters in a two-way matchup with Biden. Trump won roughly 1 in 10 Black voters nationally in 2020, according to multiple estimates, including 12% in CNN’s exit poll.
In the same survey, 14% of Black voters said that if the election were held today, they would vote for Trump vs. 49% for Biden. Hispanic voters were 31% for Biden and 31% for Trump. When it comes to non-White voters without a college degree, 32% said they would vote for Biden if the election were held today while 27% said they would back Trump.
While 69% said there is “not really any chance” they would vote for Trump, 24% of Black voters in the poll said there is “not really any chance” they would cast their vote for Biden.
Just last week, the Biden campaign went to Philadelphia launching a nationwide effort to mobilize Black voters, characterizing the Trump campaign as one with a “racist and toxic agenda.”
An April New York Times/Siena poll suggested that Biden’s support continues to lag behind typical Democratic performance among several key subgroups within the party’s usual coalition, with Black voters breaking 69% for Biden to 16% for Trump and Hispanic voters dividing 50% for Biden to 41% for Trump. Younger voters were split about evenly, 46% for Biden to 45% for Trump.
Scott is making the case that there are voters up for grabs, and in a tight election, it could make the difference if they turn out for Trump, rather than coming home to Biden or not voting at all.
Scott also said that he thinks that Trump’s conviction on 34 felony charges is helping drive “more folks to the Republican Party period.”
He suggested that the conviction, which he told Fox News is unifying the Republican Party, has the potential to pull more Black men into the fold.
“I think African American men, specifically, have experienced a lot with the justice system, not all of the good, and therefore, watching an injustice play out that is just so blatant, a lot of African American men have said, ‘You know what, I’m gonna take a closer look at the Republican Party,’” Scott said.
Trump recently suggested something similar in February at a gathering of Black conservatives in South Carolina ahead of the state’s Republican primary.
“A lot of people said that that’s why the Black people like me because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against, and they actually viewed me as I’m being discriminated against,” Trump said.
Separate from Trump, the Great Opportunity PAC sees this opportunity to close the gap with voters who feel like Democrats let them down.
As CNN’s Kevin Liptak reported last week, Biden’s aides say they aren’t taking Black voters for granted as surveys suggest an erosion of support, particularly among Black men.
“They feel like their vote has been taken for granted,” Jennifer DeCasper, executive director of the Great Opportunity PAC said, referring to Black and brown Democrats. “That doesn’t mean they’re going to jump on the Republican bandwagon anytime soon. But I do feel like now we are on a level playing field where we can also compete for their votes and compete for their ears, and I don’t think that that’s happened in a really long time.”
“We are in a position where we want to step into that space, step in pretty heavy handed and show that we have not only the right policy, but we actually care about winning their vote and keeping their vote,” DeCasper said.
CNN’s Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.
