Senator Tim Scott launches his US presidential campaign, here’s all about him

In a latest, South Carolina’s Republican Senator Tim Scott has launched his presidential campaign formally on 22 May, joining a fleet of other Republican candidates aiming to capture their party’s nomination.

Scott, 57, has entered the US Presidential race with a about $22m (£18m) in cash on hand, which is more campaign funds than any of his rivals, according to BBC.

As per national opinion polls, Scott is garnering less than 5 percent support in the race.

The South Carolina Senator, at his launch event in his hometown of North Charleston, even touted his personal story where he mentioned that he is grandson of a Deep South cotton field worker who rose to the US Senate.

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Apart from this, he also mentioned how he was raised by a single mother and how his family went ‘from cotton to Congress’ in his grandfather’s lifetime.

Sharing his experience, he said how he was being pulled over by police seven times in one year for being black and being stopped inside the US Capitol building. However, he rejected the idea that the nation is defined by racial division.

“I am living proof that America is the land of opportunity, not a land of oppression,” BBC quoted him as saying, railing against the political left. “The truth of my life disproves their lies.”

He even vowed to turn around ‘a nation in retreat’.

As per details, Scott is among the three sitting black US senators in the 100-member upper chamber of Congress, alongside Democrats Cory Booker and Raphael Warnock.

Here’s who is Tim Scott?

1) Tim Scott, 57, is an Republican Senator serving South Carolina since 2013.

2) Appointed to the US Senate by Governor Nikki Haley in 2013.

3) Scott is one of 11 African-Americans to have served in the U.S. Senate

4) Looking at records, Scott is the first African-American senator from South Carolina, the first African-American senator to be elected from the Southern United States since 1881, and the first African-American Republican to serve in the Senate since Edward Brooke departed in 1979.

5) On 19 May, the Republican has filed Federal Election Commission paperwork to run for president and formally declared his candidacy on 22 May.

6) Scott, 57, has entered the US Presidential race with a about $22m (£18m) in cash on hand, which is more campaign funds than any of his rivals.

7) In his presidential bid, Scott vowed to turn around ‘a nation in retreat’.