Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) announced plans to run for reelection in 2028 on Wednesday, reneging on his commitment to serve only two terms in the upper chamber.
“The more I travel the state, the more I travel the country, the more I realize the important role that we play in the majority,” Scott told the Post and Courier, reflecting on the razor-thin margin of power Republicans hold in the Senate. Scott is the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which serves as the upper chamber’s GOP campaign arm.
The South Carolina lawmaker’s move to seek a third term breaks his previous and repeated commitment to limit his political career to two terms in the Senate. In 2014, Scott told reporters he would leave Washington after serving two full-six year terms, a move that would have made the senator’s 2022 reelection campaign his last.
In 2019, Scott reiterated the pledge when he revealed plans to run for a second term in 2022. “That will be my last one if I run,” he told the Post and Courier at the time.
When pressed this week on whether he misspoke, Scott said Tuesday, “Oh no, no. I meant 2028.”
The Palmetto State senator first rose to national prominence in 2012, when then-Republican Gov. Nikki Haley plucked him out of the state House to succeed Sen. Jim DeMint.
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In 2014, Scott was elected to the remaining two years of DeMint’s term, becoming the first black political figure to win a statewide race in South Carolina since Reconstruction. Scott subsequently trounced his competition in 2016 to win his first full eight-year term.
In his role as NRSC chairman, Scott recently told the Washington Examiner he is working “against history” to stave off losses in the Senate and keep Republicans from losing their majority in the 2026 midterm elections. He named Maine, North Carolina, Iowa, Ohio, and Alaska as likely containing the most competitive seats Republicans are defending. Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, and Maine are home to the four Democratic Senate seats the GOP views as the most vulnerable in the country, according to Scott, who is eyeing them as key pickup opportunities.