Republican Presidential candidate Tim Scott opened up about his private life during a Faith and Freedom Coalition in Des Moines on September 16. The South Carolina senator told Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird that he was “dating a lovely Christian girl,” adding that they “pray together.” Quoting scripture, he said the gospels always point people in the right direction: “He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.”
The Washington Post ran a lengthy feature recently probing the Republican’s love life and concluding that he seemed uncomfortable discussing it publicly. The 59-year-old is unusual in being unmarried while standing for the Presidency and has increasingly mentioned his girlfriend as a result.
In May, an interviewer asked him directly why Americans should listen to an unmarried man speak about family values, and he responded by saying we are no longer “living in 1963.” He then commented that being unmarried allowed him more time for his work.
Senator Scott told NBC News that voters don’t care about his marital status after an Axios article suggested that donors were nervous about the issue. “People plant stories that have conversations to distract from our rise in the polls and the size of our audience,” he said. He added that opponents highlight his single status as a form of attack, but did not name these opponents.
According to the White House Historical Association, James Buchanan was the only US President to remain single. Grover Cleveland was single while campaigning for the Presidency but married soon after he was elected.
The latest polls show little change in the Republican primary rankings, and Senator Scott remains on the lower end with only marginal support. A YouGov poll from September 14 to 18 placed Mr. Scott at just 2% and trailing behind Nikky Haley at 3%, Mike Pence and Chris Christie at 5%, Vivek Ramaswamy at 7%, Ron DeSantis at 12%, and unchanged frontrunner Donald Trump is at 59%.
