Tim Scott defends being a black Republican as he flirts with 2024 bid

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott said he'll take his time before announcing a run for president, but delivered a could-be stump speech Thursday night - just two miles down the road from where 2024 hopeful Nikki Haley held her first campaign rally. 

He headlined the Charleston County Republicans' fifth annual Black History Month banquet Thursday night and delivered an uplifting message about American race relations, especially exciting the crowd when he defended being a proud black Republican.

'Listen, I understand being treated as a second class citizen because of the color of my skin,' he said. 'I refuse, I refuse to be treated as a second class citizen because of the color of my party.' 

Prior to his appearance, Scott talked to local reporters and said he wasn't ready to announce a 2024 presidential bid yet - despite launching a 'listening tour' in two key early contest states: his home state of South Carolina and then next week in Iowa, which will hold the first GOP caucus early next year. 

'We'll take our time, listen to the American people and talk about the issues that we think are really important,' Scott said. 'I think it's time for an optimistic, positive message that is anchored in conservative principles.' 

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott said he'll take his time before announcing a run for president, but delivered a could-be stump speech Thursday night - just two miles down the road from where 2024 hopeful Nikki Haley held her first campaign rally

He headlined the Charleston County Republicans' fifth annual Black History Month banquet Thursday night and delivered an uplifting message about American race relations, especially exciting the crowd when he defended being a proud black Republican

That positive message started with telling the audience that they had 'a lot of reasons' to celebrate Black History Month. 

'If you stop at our original sin, you have not started the story of America,' Scott, the only black Republican in the U.S. Senate, argued. 'Because the story of America is not defined by our original sin, the story is defined by our redemption.' 

'We have made tremendous progress and it's time that we as a people celebrate the progress we have made,' he added.  

He pointed to his own family's history - noting they went from 'Cotton to Congress' in just two generations, sharing many of the same family anecdotes that he has in previous speeches.

Scott's grandfather was illiterate, only getting up to a third grade education, and picked cotton in the fields of rural South Carolina. 

He was raised by a single mother - who he brought as his dinner date - and expressed anger that single black mothers are encouraged to get abortions to help their economic future. 

Scott talked about how a white mentor from his teenage time working at Chick-fil-A helped him turn his academic career around. 

That guidance plus a partial football scholarship allowed him to attend college. 

Scott kept direct political attacks to a minimum.

He aimed some ire at President Joe Biden for inflation and also criticized those in the country who 'spread the cancer of hopelessness.' 

Scott spoke about some good things that happened to historically black colleges and universities under former President Donald Trump - though didn't fully credit him, nor mention the 2024 hopeful's name, just the years he was in office. 

Sen. Tim Scott brought his mother Frances as his date to Thursday night's Black History Month dinner in Charleston, South Carolina 

Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants who delivered her first campaign speech Wednesday, hit similar notes on race when speaking to her crowd, arguing that the country isn't 'racist' and knocking Democrats who suggested it was. 

Haley headed to New Hampshire following her 2024 announcement and will also head to Iowa, where Scott will hold his second 'listening tour' event next week. 

Asked by The Post and Courier at a pre-speech gaggle if he planned to endorse Haley now that she's announced, the South Carolina senator answered in the negative. 

Earlier in a radio interview Thursday, he had said 'there's room for two' GOP hopefuls from South Carolina - further hinting he'll eventually throw his hat in the ring.

Attendees at the Charleston County GOP dinner told DailyMail.com they liked what they heard from Scott, but also were just at the start of the process to decide who they'd select in the South Carolina primary - including former President Donald Trump. 

'No takes yet, we're still looking - we don't make a decision until we've had a chance to see everybody,' said William Oden, the chairman of the Sumter, South Carolina GOP. 

As for Trump, 'I still like him,' Oden said. 

'Senator Scott has already done a fantastic job as a senator and he will do a fantastic job if he does win the nomination,' Oden also added.

Janice Oden, a 71-year-old retiree also from Sumter, said she wasn't 'really shopping for somebody else' and called Trump a 'good president' but remained undecided.

'I can't really say because we haven't heard from everybody. I always like to hear what they say first before I decide, of course,' she told DailyMail.com.

Kenneth Battle, a 67-year-old attendee from Charleston, who's retired, replied 'for me it's an absolute yes' when asked about Scott as a potential president - but that didn't mean he'd necessarily cast a ballot for the senator in his state's important primary.

'I'm gonna wait and see on that, you know?' he said, explaining 'you can't go wrong' with Scott or Haley, while also saying that Trump 'did a lot of great things for this country.' 

Those who were at Haley's event Wednesday were more firmly against giving the former president another try. 

Mainly, Haley's supporters said they objected to Trump's style. 

'I believed a lot in his policies, maybe not necessarily how he went about things,' said Trent Watts, 45, a Charleston-based real estate developer. 

Watts popped in to see Haley's presidential announcement because his job brought him downtown Wednesday and said he'd be voting for her in the 2024 South Carolina primary. 

Robin Christmas, a semi-retired 63-year-old from Greenville, South Carolina, who - like Haley - had been an accountant, echoed Watts' sentiment about Trump. 

'He didn't do a bad job,' said Christmas, who was volunteering for Haley's campaign. 'He just talked too much.' 

Another campaign volunteer, Judith Shailor, a 74-year Fort Mill, South Carolina resident, said supporting Trump had been a 'difficult one.' 

'I think he did a lot for the country in many ways, but he did a lot of damage to the country. He was divisive. And Nikki Haley is a uniter,' she said. 

Shailor, who relocated to South Carolina from Vermont and ran Congressional campaigns against now Sen. Bernie Sanders, said Haley was a perfect fit for moderate Republicans like her.

'I think the Republican Party needs to stay in the center and that's what Nikki represents, the middle of the road, common sense, down to earth-tone, values and integrity and we've got to stop dividing this country. The far right and far left are off the rails,' Shailor told DailyMail.com.

At the same time, she expressed excitement for other potential GOP candidates.

'I'm so excited, the Republican Party has a great field of candidates,' she said, pointing to Scott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis - though adding that she believed Haley was more 'personable' than DeSantis. 

The harshest assessment of Trump came from a Haley supporter who wouldn't give her name.

'I think Trump is over,' she said. 'I think the Lin Wood-QAnon people need to wake up,' the woman added.