CHICAGO — Tim Scott’s staunch focus on winning over Republicans in early-voting states means he has spoken to predominantly white audiences at nearly all of his presidential campaign events.
That changed this week in Chicago, where Scott, a senator from South Carolina, delivered a campaign speech before a mostly Black group of prospective voters, testing his messaging on a group that’s typically skeptical of the Republican Party — and remained skeptical after it heard what Scott had to say, attendees said in interviews.
Scott has largely been hesitant to make his race a focus of his candidacy, though his career has been defined by historic feats like becoming the first Black senator from the South since Reconstruction. Despite that, Scott has fielded repeated questions on the trail from white Republican voters eager to hear about how he could win over more voters of color.
At a different campaign event Tuesday after the Chicago stop, Scott said he was optimistic that his race could give him better luck in recruiting Black voters to the party, possibly capitalizing on a trend that has been growing since 2020.
“One of the reasons why we went to South Side is because I have lived a similar experience to people who find themselves trapped in poverty, who are today growing up in single-parent households who are wondering whether the American dream can work for them,” he said. “If I can use my personal pain and misery to share the truth — that conservative principles are worth [it] long-term — I think the better off our country will be.”
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., in Chicago on Monday.Scott Olson / Getty Images
Corey Brooks, the lead pastor of New Beginnings Church, invited Scott to the South Side of Chicago to speak before church members and tour a community center under construction. Brooks extended invitations to all 2024 presidential candidates and welcomed Scott as the first to accept the offer.
“The very fact that we would have a presidential candidate come to the South Side of Chicago and not just grace the South Side of Chicago with his presence, but right here on ‘Opportunity Block,’ is a major, major thing,” Brooks said, referencing his name for the neighborhood.
Over the course of an hour, Scott spoke to an audience of roughly 50 people, giving his signature scripture-laced speech that leaned heavily into his upbringing.
“I grew up with kids who ended up in the graveyard or in jail,” he said. “That’s why I think this message is absolutely essential for me to preach and for me to share it, because I’ve lived it. I know the consequences of decisions. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. I’ve experienced the pain myself.”
He then shifted into a posture more typical of his campaign, preaching about the social ills he says have been propagated by the “left” at the expense of cities like Chicago.
“The far left has spent decades getting soft on crime, defending failing schools, undermining traditional values and weakening capitalism,” he said. “If this movement actually cared about Americans of any color, any color, they would admit their failures and change direction. But it’s not about inspiration. It’s about manipulation, because it’s about power.”
Scott reiterated controversial comments he made at the second Republican primary debate, asserting that Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society social programs caused sustained damage to Black and brown communities. He called for more personal accountability and criticized Democrats for feeding communities of color “this drug of victimhood and the narcotic of despair.”
“The government cannot and should not raise our kids. Social programs can never be the breadwinner who gives our family a better life,” he said. “You can’t have freedom without personal responsibility.”
For Scott, the Chicago event was a resounding success. He touted his performance there at a meet-and-greet event Monday evening with an all-white crowd of predominantly older voters in Marshalltown, Iowa.
“When I finished talking about how the GOP, the great opportunity party, can bring resources, better education, lower crime, higher unemployment,” Scott said, “you may have thought we were in the middle of an independent, partially conservative crowd.”
People at the Chicago speech who spoke in interviews afterward painted a more nuanced picture of how Scott’s conservative messaging was received. Some said they felt shortchanged by a speech they described as more focused on attacking the left than on highlighting specific policies from the right that would better their communities.
“I’m disappointed with the speech,” said Kimberly Wimberly, who attended the speech with her husband, Roderick. “He never got to the part where he can fix it. You want to be in the highest position in the whole United States of America, and yet you have not come with any solutions to the problem. You just pointed out the problem.”
Roderick Wimberly said: “I thought we were going to have a policy discussion. Many times when politicians come to our communities, they’re not coming to engage in actual policy discussions, because they may overlook us and think that, well, they won’t understand these discussions.”
He said he hoped Scott would highlight his stance on abortion, corrective measures he would take to address low property values in the city and his plan to address lackluster funding for city schools.
Kimberly Wimberly added: “We’re not looking for the theatrics. We’re not looking for the dramatization. We just want to hear you. We’re intelligent people.”
Others felt Scott’s focus on personal accountability while denying the existence of systemic and institutional racism in America overly simplified a nuanced conversation.
“I’m a personal individual that’s been held accountable for my actions. I got locked up in 1989. I was 16 years old. I didn’t get out until I was 48,” said a formerly incarcerated man who asked not to share his full name.
“The institutional racism looks like this right here: When you try and apply for a job, they got on the application background checks. When you try to get housing, background checks,” he said.
Roderick Wimberly said, “It blames the people who are in poverty for their failure to achieve and kind of demonizes us.”
Kimberly Wimberly said: “We do want to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, but we need boots, and we need the straps. A lot of us are barefoot.”
Despite the criticisms, Scott’s speech did draw some support in the room.
“I’m glad he came. And I hope that people start to realize that we need to change,” said Lavondale Glass, who goes by the nickname “Big Dale.” “I’m looking at our neighborhood, and our neighborhood’s been the same for the last 47 years, and that’s what the Democrats have been doing. So we need a whole new regime.”
“I’m a vote for him,” Glass said.
Still, the overall feeling of most attendees was that Scott’s attempt to appeal to the group through his life story was undercut by his politicking.
“The bottom line is any person that comes through these doors, any other door where they meet the public, they’re trying to win votes. Period,” said Ron Bellamy, a retired educator.
Nnamdi Egwuonwu
Nnamdi Egwuonwu is a 2024 NBC News campaign embed.
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