OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott has become the latest Republican to enter the 2024 presidential race in a filing with federal election officials on Friday.
According to campaign filings, Scott put in his paperwork with the Federal Elections Commission, Fox News reported.
In addition, Scott launched a $6 million ad campaign in a number of key presidential primary states on Friday as well, the report said.
Scott joins former President Donald Trump, former UN ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, business entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchison, and conservative writer Larry Elder in an increasingly crowded 2024 GOP presidential field.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has not yet officially declared his candidacy but he made moves this week indicating that an official declaration is coming as early as next week. He appears to be Trump’s only serious challenger for the nomination, at least at the moment.
Is the GOP actually serious about 2024, or is it merely out to renominate the one candidate—Trump—who will never be able to win the presidency? What is Tim Scott's true thought process? Yet another piece of 2016 bullshit that will sink the GOP forever. https://t.co/0W64N9Vr8u
— TRUTH (@spectre_legit) May 19, 2023
In fact, reports on Thursday shed some light on who DeSantis wants as his running mate.
DeSantis “is determined to recruit Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders as his running mate before making a formal announcement on his 2024 presidential bid, sources close to his campaign” exclusively told RadarOnline.com.
The outlet noted further that “insiders claim” DeSantis made his decision to go after former President Donald Trump’s press secretary after she became the first female governor of the red state in 2022, succeeding Asa Hutchison, who has also jumped into the 2024 GOP primaries.
“He really only has one strong choice: Sarah,” the source told the outlet. “He is desperate to lock up his running mate before he makes his formal announcement. He would announce his VP candidate very soon afterward.”
“He thinks it will be a one-two punch, and Republicans will be hard-pressed to look past a united front, especially if it is him and Sarah,” the insider noted further.
The RadarOnline report comes on the heels of a previous story on Thursday that said DeSantis has made another move that strongly supports the contention that he’s preparing to announce his presidential run.
“DeSantis severed his connection to his long-standing state political committee and the tens of millions of dollars that it now controls, a step he needs to take ahead of a presidential campaign,” the outlet noted, adding: “The Republican governor is expected to jump into the race for president soon and the move to rebrand his Florida political committee — called Friends of Ron DeSantis — is the most concrete sign so far that his candidacy is imminent.”
DeSantis has said for months he would not make a decision on whether to run for president until the end of Florida’s legislative session, which is nearing.
Last Friday, DeSantis filed a notice with the state indicating that he has disassociated himself from the political committee. The notice specified that he is no longer involved in raising funds directly or indirectly for the organization.
Notably, on Tuesday morning, the committee’s website was updated to reflect its new mission of being “committed to advancing the Freedom Agenda and keeping Florida free.” The website also clarified that the committee is now associated with State Senator Blaise Ingoglia, replacing DeSantis.
“Ingoglia is a Republican ally of DeSantis who sponsored several of the governor’s key legislative priorities during the recently concluded legislative session, including a crackdown on illegal immigration that includes $12 million for the governor’s controversial migrant relocation program,” the outlet said.
“DeSantis first set up his committee back in 2018 and he used it to raise a record amount of money for his re-election campaign last year as he pulled in donations from many major Republican donors. Current campaign finance records show that the committee has nearly $86 million in the bank,” Politico added.
