Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) will run for reelection in 2028, his campaign told POLITICO on Wednesday, reversing a promise to serve just two full terms in the chamber.
Appointed by then-Gov. Nikki Haley to serve out the last two years of outgoing Sen. Jim DeMint’s Senate term in 2012, Scott had long said that 2022 would mark his final bid for the Senate.
He easily won reelection that year, besting Democratic state lawmaker Krystle Matthews by more than 25 percentage points. Scott then ran for president but abandoned his short-lived bid for the White House before the Iowa caucuses.
He was briefly considered to serve as now-President Donald Trump’s running mate and has since emerged as a key White House ally in the Senate.
“And I’ll say without any question that as I think about my own reelection in 2028, I think about all the lessons I’ve learned on the campaign trail for all these other candidates, and frankly, even in South Carolina,” Scott told the Charleston, South Carolina-based Post and Courier, which was first to report his reelection plans.
