Timothy Eugene Scott (born September 19, 1965) is an American businessman and politician serving as the junior United States senator from South Carolina since 2013. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a Charleston city councilor, a state representative, and a U.S. Representative. He also worked in financial services before entering politics. Scott served on the Charleston County Council from 1995 to 2009. He then served in the South Carolina General Assembly from 2009 to 2011, and represented South Carolina's 1st congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2011 to 2013. Nikki Haley, who was then governor of South Carolina, appointed Scott to the U.S. Senate in 2013 to fill a vacancy. He retained his Senate seat after winning a special election in 2014, and was elected to a full term in 2016 and reelected in 2022. He became the first African-American senator to be elected from the Southern United States since the Reconstruction era.Scott was a candidate in the 2024 Republican Party presidential primaries, forming an exploratory committee on April 13, 2023. He filed Federal Election Commission paperwork to run for president on May 19, and formally declared his candidacy three days later. Scott suspended his campaign on November 12 of that year due to low poll numbers.