Tim Scott has a girlfriend. So what?
Jay Caruso
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Search “Tim Scott” on Google, and nearly every result centers on introducing his girlfriend, Mindy Noce. Noce, 47, is an interior designer for a real estate company in Charleston, South Carolina.
Scott referenced a girlfriend a couple of months ago, and naturally, the speculation took off, wondering who this mystery woman was. Well, now we know, and she seems to be a lovely woman.
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Naturally, the whispering about Scott being a bachelor in his late 50s began when he launched his presidential campaign. There is a strange irony that exists in the political world for single Republicans. There are always “questions.” The same questions get raised over Scott’s South Carolina colleague, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
The press like to do the “some say” thing about single Republicans, especially those who run for president. “Some say conservative voters would not be comfortable with a single man as president.” Really? Who says? And where are these conservative voters? The statements almost never cite supporting data.
Another thing to keep in mind is these “questions” often come from Democrats and left-wing activists who don’t come out and say it but float the possibility that Scott is single because he’s gay. A Washington Post story had to say explicitly, “And let’s just get this out of the way: This is not a wink-wink story that uses ‘single’ in place of ‘gay.’”
That the reporter has to clarify that’s not what he means goes to show that, for many people, that’s exactly what it is. And it’s not as if activists and those in the press have any altruistic motives for speculating about Scott’s sexuality. Their motives are purely political. If, for whatever reason, Scott announced he was gay, the people speculating would not hail him for his supposed “bravery.” Instead, they’d bash him for his “hypocrisy” for being a Republican and ask, “How can you live with yourself?” type questions ad infinitum.
We’ve seen it before. Former White House political director Ken Mehlman came out in 2010 (after nearly a half-dozen years of speculation and attempts to out him) and immediately faced some backlash for “betraying” the gay rights movement for having the audacity to work for former President George W. Bush. It was prevalent in fictional pop culture. The HBO Series The Newsroom featured an episode in which Will McAvoy, played by Jeff Daniels, berated a member of former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum’s 2012 presidential campaign for an entire segment, grilling him as to why a gay black man would ever want to work for someone such as Santorum.
This doesn’t happen elsewhere. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) is 54 years old and never married. Yet questions about his sexuality never became a topic in the 2020 presidential race, and in 2013, the magazine Town and Country named him one of the “Top 40 Bachelors.” He announced he was a “straight male,” and that was the end, as it should be.
But the more radical elements of the activist Left won’t let it die. They’ll say Noce is nothing but a “beard,” a term used to describe a companion used entirely for dispelling rumors of one’s sexual orientation.
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Also, considering that Noce is an attractive, blonde, white woman, elements of the Left will also use that as an opening. It wouldn’t surprise anyone if Joy Reid of MSNBC, Elie Mystal from the Nation, or Charles Blow of the New York Times “asked questions” about his relationship. “Why is Sen. Tim Scott afraid of a relationship with a strong black woman?” Intersectionality is critical to left-wing orthodoxy, and they’ll use it as a cudgel any chance they get.
Thankfully, Scott has handled all the silliness with grace and aplomb in a political environment in which lashing out and yelling are more common. Now that the proverbial question has an answer, carry on with the Republican nomination race.
Jay Caruso is a writer and editor residing in West Virginia.