U.S. Senator from South Carolina, Timothy Eugene Scott is the first black Republican elected to the Senate from the South since Senator Blanche Kelso Bruce served in that body representing Mississippi from 1876 to 1881. He is also the first Republican Senator elected since Edward Brooke represented Massachusetts in that body in the 1960s and early 1970s.
Before his appointment to the Senate post on December 17, 2012, Scott was a Congressman representing South Carolinas 1st Congressional District. Elected during the 2010 midterm elections, he was also the first black Republican elected to the House of Representatives from South Carolina since George Washington Murray, who served in Congress from 1896 to 1897.
Senator Scott was born on September 19, 1965 in North Charleston and grew up in this impoverished neighborhood. His parents divorced when he was seven. In order to make ends meet, his mother, Frances, worked sixteen hour days as a nurse’s assistant, a profession which she still holds. Scott’s older brother is a U.S. Army officer, stationed in Germany.
Tim Scott graduated from Charleston Southern University with a B.S. degree in Political Science in 1988. He began his professional life selling insurance door-to-door. Over the years, the business, Tim Scott Allstate Insurance, developed into a highly successful company. Scott is also a partner in the Pathway Real Estate Group.
In 1995, Scott was elected to the Charleston County Council, becoming the first black Republican to hold a countywide elected office since Reconstruction. He served on the Council for thirteen years, rising to the position of Council Chair in 2008.
In 2010 Scott won the vacated seat of Republican Congressman Henry Brown, Jr. When Scott decided to enter the race for Congress, he raised $725,000, far more than the $20,000 of his closest challenger. He subsequently won a resounding victory in the nine-candidate Republican primary. Among his opponents was Carroll Campbell III, the son of the late governor. In the
