What to Know About Sen. Tim Scott: Age, Family, Political Career

Sen. Tim Scott has officially qualified for the first GOP debate in the 2024 presidential election race, where he will take the stage in Milwaukee alongside seven of his Republican rivals.

The Republican has been a senator representing South Carolina for a decade now, after first being elected in 2013. But his career in politics started in 1994, when he ran for a seat on the Charleston City Council.

Political breakthrough

He won, and in 1995, became the first Black Republican to hold any office in South Carolina in almost a century. After years in local government, he ran for the South Carolina state house in 2008 and served a single term before running for senate.

During his brief time at the House, he joined the Women’s Caucus, saying proudly he was “the product of a powerful single mother.”

Once he won the Senate race, Scott became in 2013 the only Black person to ever serve both in the House and in the Senate. Even though he has recounted many racist experiences before and during his career in politics, Scott did not join the Congressional Black Caucus, arguing his campaign was not about race.

He currently serves in the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs; on Foreign Relations; on Small Business and Entrepreneurship; the Special Committee on Aging; and finally, on the Senate's Finance Committee.

Scott was first appointed to his Senate seat by then-Gov. Nikki Haley, who is also in the 2024 presidential race and will be joining him on the debate stage on Wednesday.

Age and personal life

A graduate of Charleston Southern University, Scott, now 58, never married or had children. As soon as he graduated college, he opened his own small insurance business before going into public serving.