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For months, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., has fueled speculation about his political future and a potential run for president in 2024.
This week, he released a new memoir explaining how hope and redemption have shaped his life.
And, in the last few months, a super PAC affiliated with Scott, the Opportunity Matters Fund, has been spending money to air TV ads in swing states. Six of the seven ads feature Tim Scott, once again adding to speculation that he's trying to boost his name identification in states crucial to a Republican presidential primary victory.
Scott hasn't denied an interest in a 2024 bid, saying he's in no rush to decide.
"My focus is winning my re-election this year and I have really spent very little time thinking about 2024," Scott told Bret Baier on Fox News in June.
"Every Friday night when you’re in high school, you’re looking forward to the next game. This Friday night is 2022. I want to win this game before thinking about the next game."
Scott also spoke in June at an event hosted by Iowa Republicans in Cedar Rapids. Iowa, of course, is the first state to caucus each presidential primary cycle.
Since the beginning of July, Scott's PAC has run ads in North Carolina supporting Republican nominee for Senate Ted Budd, in Wisconsin supporting Sen. Ron Johnson's bid for re-election, in Georgia supporting Republican nominee for Senate Herschel Walker, in Nevada supporting Republican nominee for Senate Adam Laxalt and in Iowa supporting the re-election bids of GOP Reps. Ashley Hinson and Mariannette Miller-Meeks.
Opportunity Matters also ran ads starting in January supporting Wesley Hunt's bid for Congress in Texas, but Scott did not appear direct-to-camera in those.
Scott has long sought to diversify the Republican party by bringing in more women and more people of color under the GOP tent. He was first elected in 2012 and has been the first and only Black Republican Senator since 1980.
Opportunity Matters' website claims the group's goal is to promote "a policy platform based on the conservative principle of equal access to opportunity."
But, the significance of the swing states where the group is running ads signify there could be multiple motives behind this ad campaign.
Also worth noting are the donors funding Scott's PAC. Among them are notable Republican donors like Ken Griffin, the CEO of Citadel, Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle, and Koch Industries, a multi-national company that shares the same name for the influential, conservative Koch brothers.
