Judging by opinion polls, Donald Trump looks to be the overwhelming favorite for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is the clear alternative. But news this week from South Carolina suggests that Republicans aren’t nearly as sold on Trump as the polling suggests.
Sen. Tim Scott declared Wednesday that he is officially “exploring” a presidential run. In practical terms, that means the campaign he started some time ago is becoming a bit more formal. How serious is his bid? When asked whether he would support Donald Trump if the former president were to win the Republican nomination, Scott simply said: “I plan on being the nominee.”
On the surface, Scott’s chances don’t appear fantastic; he’s running at about 1% of the vote nationally in the polls that bother to include him. Even a survey of likely Republican voters in South Carolina had him at only 7%, well behind former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and DeSantis, who in turn were some 20 percentage points behind Trump. Indeed, Trump has been gradually gaining in national polling and now gets about half of all Republican voters in these very early soundings.
