Tim Scott was the ‘happy warrior’ GOP race needed. But here’s why his timing was off | Opinion

Tim Scott’s widely anticipated exit from the presidential campaign trail continues the thinning of the Republican primary field but does nothing to change the election calculus for a party still dominated by Donald Trump.

Scott, a South Carolina senator often referred to as a “happy warrior,” failed to gain traction since entering the race in May and most recently saw his poll numbers dwindle even further.

He told Fox News’ Trey Gowdy that voters are “telling me, ‘Not now, Tim.’ ”

The timing of the news came as a shock to many, reportedly including members of his staff. But given that his campaign failed to launch since its inception and he was down to about 2% in national polls, no one can rightly say they didn’t see the suspension of his campaign eventually coming.

In fact, I correctly predicted that Scott’s campaign message would find deaf ears on the campaign trail. With both parties now dominated by a handful of extremists content to stoke outrage, Scott’s “city on the hill” message of optimism, faith in God and country, and a return to the values that made this country great fell flat. That’s a shame. At a time when patriotism and religious participation are declining, it was refreshing to hear a candidate set aside interparty bickering to focus on what unites us instead of divides us.

While Scott’s departure helped cull the primary candidate ranks, the collective action problem in the GOP remains: The former president commands about 60% of the Republican primary electorate; his only remotely viable contenders are Ron DeSantis at a distant second with 15%, Nikki Haley at 9%, and Vivek Ramaswamy at 5%.

The GOP establishment has clamored for a winnowing of the field in hopes of presenting the electorate with a binary choice. Trump is still held in rapture by a wide swath of the party, but he has become someone many see as having gone from divorced from reality to dangerous and unfit for public office.

Early on, DeSantis, who won a landslide reelection as Florida’s governor in 2022, was viewed as the frontrunner to challenge Trump’s dominance. More recently, Haley’s star has been rising. Scott’s exit, which comes on the heels of former Vice President Mike Pence leaving the race, will be of little consequence to DeSantis or Haley considering that Trump has a strong lead not just nationally but in each of the upcoming primary states as well.

The remaining candidates echo the same sentiments, that of working to earn the party’s nomination, even as they seem to have no clear plan to overcome Trump’s lead. It’s as though they are hoping for a deus ex machina to remove the former president and install one of them as the Republican nominee, which would prevent a showdown that the vast majority of voters say they do not want: Biden vs. Trump, Part II.

Scott will be missed on the campaign trail. He is one of the most popular U.S. senators, and no one speaks more enthusiastically about the promise of America. The Black Southerner talks eloquently about his upbringing and how in one generation his family went from “cotton to Congress.” His policy bona fides are impressive as well, including a bill to designate lynching as a federal hate crime and his work with Trump on opportunity zones and criminal justice reform.

Like Scott, I don’t see the lack of a call from Republican voters as a referendum on him as a presidential candidate. It’s simply not the right time. In fact, I’m more hopeful than ever that his name will be on a ballot for president in the near future. His voice is too important to lose.

Ronell Smith is a business strategy consultant who serves on the Southlake City Council.

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