Trump running mate contender makes pitch to top Republican donors

Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, a top ally and potential running mate of former President Trump, is making the case for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

Scott, who ran unsuccessfully for the 2024 nomination but remains a very popular figure in the GOP, on Wednesday convenes a one-day summit that is drawing top figures in the Republican Party as well as mega-donors who have yet to commit to Trump’s White House campaign.

The all afternoon and evening gathering of Great Opportunity Policy, a Scott-aligned non-profit group that supports his political and policy agendas, will also double as a fundraiser for the former president as Trump enters his final phases in his search for a running mate.

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Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., right, speaks in front of former President Trump during a campaign rally on Feb. 28, 2020 in North Charleston, South Carolina. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

The senator helped organize a major fundraiser for Trump earlier this year ahead of the South Carolina primary, and he attended a top-dollar fundraiser in New York City for the former president last month. Additionally, Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, earlier this month launched a $14 million effort to help the former president win over Black and other non-White working class voters that Scott argues could be the deciding factor in November’s elections.

On Wednesday, he will be making the case for Trump to a number of top donors and billionaires, including Ken Griffin, the founder of the Citadel hedge fund, who spent tens of millions during the 2024 Republican primaries in support of Trump’s rivals, and hedge fund executive Bill Ackman of Pershing Square Capital, who helped finance the campaigns of GOP presidential contender Nikki Haley and Democrat turned independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

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When asked what his message is to top donors who have yet to fully commit to the former president, Scott told Fox News Digital last month that “it is in the best interest of the United States of America to have four more years of President Donald Trump. It is in the best interest of our economy to have four more years of Donald Trump.”

“The one thing you can discern as a top donor and Republican and, frankly, a strong business person is that a strong economy makes all things possible,” 

Then-GOP presidential candidate Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina speaks with members of the New Hampshire Federation of Republican Women at an event at Saint Anselm College’s New Hampshire Institute of Politics, on May 25, 2023 in Manchester, New Hampshire. (Fox News )

Scott, who was one of roughly a dozen Republican candidates who unsuccessfully challenged Trump for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination before ending his White House bid late last year, endorsed the former president in January.

The conservative senator from South Carolina over the past five months has become a top Trump surrogate and is considered to be among a small group of contenders on the short list as Trump’s running mate on the 2024 Republican ticket.

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Political analysts say that Scott, as a Black evangelical, could help the former president make a sizable dent in President Biden’s lead with minority voters.

Republican presidential candidate former President Trump, right, looks to Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., during a Fox News Channel town hall on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024 in Greenville, South Carolina. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

His campaign trail efforts on behalf of Trump appear to have impressed the former president.

“You are a much better candidate for me than you are for yourself,” Trump has said to Scott a handful of times.

However, pundits question whether Scott’s uneven debate appearances during the Republican presidential primaries could be an issue for him if he faces off against Vice President Kamala Harris this summer in a general election running mate debate.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.