How Tim Scott's Presidential Dreams Unraveled

South Carolina Senator Tim Scott has pulled out of the 2024 presidential race after his campaign failed to gain any meaningful support or momentum.

Scott, who entered the GOP primary in May, made a surprise announcement that he would be suspending his campaign on Sunday night during an appearance on Fox News.

"When I go back to Iowa, it will not be as a presidential candidate," Scott said on Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy. "I am suspending my campaign. I think the voters, who are the most remarkable people on the planet, have been really clear that they're telling me: 'Not now, Tim.'"

Newsweek reached out to Scott's office via email for comment.

Scott became the second high-profile Republican to announce that they are suspending their campaign after former Vice President Mike Pence pulled out of the race in late October. Like Pence, Scott's presidential campaign was met with indifference from the public and a failure to generate any stand-out moments.

Scott, the first African American to be elected senator from the southern United States since the Reconstruction era, threw his hat into the ring at a time when he was considered a rising star in the GOP.

He was also buoyed with a $22 million war chest after he was able to transfer money from his Senate account into his presidential campaign. By the end of the third quarter, Scott had $11.6 million cash on hand—more than all other rivals in the GOP primary apart from former President Donald Trump.

However, Scott, who tried to paint himself as a true alternative to Trump, struggled to turn his donations into support and regularly failed to get close to double figures in the polls.

Scott received, on average, just 2.2 percent in GOP primary surveys, according to FiveThirtyEight's national live poll tracker, placing him in sixth place behind Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

Scott's campaign took a major blow in mid-October after the main super PAC supporting his campaign announced that it would be pulling millions of dollars worth of television ads that were due to be broadcast because Republican voters are clearly backing Trump instead.

"We aren't going to waste our money when the electorate isn't focused or ready for a Trump alternative," Rob Collins, a Republican strategist and a co-chairman of the Trust in Mission super PAC, wrote in a memo obtained by The New York Times.

Even when given the chance to appeal to voters, Scott failed to capitalize. The senator qualified for the three live televised GOP presidential debates but gave muted performances in all of them.

Reacting to the recent third GOP primary debate in Miami, Florida, David B. Cohen, a professor of political science at the University of Akron in Ohio, told Newsweek that Scott gave "another somewhat catatonic performance," which did not help his long shot hopes at all.

Ahead of the debate, Scott had been pressed and faced questions from potential voters about his personal life because he is not married. During the November 8 debate, Scott appeared with a woman who was later identified as his long-term girlfriend, Mindy Noce, giving the senator the only real talking point of his entire campaign.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Scott said: "Tonight, I suspended my campaign for president. Traveling this country and meeting all of you has been one of the most fantastic experiences of my entire life. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. God Bless the United States of America."