WASHINGTON: South Carolina's governor on Monday named congressman Tim Scott to replace retiring Senator Jim DeMint next month, making him the first black Republican in the US Senate in more than three decades.
"I understand that we made history today, and I'm proud that we made history today," Governor Nikki Haley said at the state capital where she announced Scott as her pick to replace the conservative DeMint, who leaves to head the Heritage Foundation thinktank.
"He earned this spot," she said of Scott, a popular first-term congressman who was just re-elected to the House of Representatives in November, but who will instead begin his Senate appointment on January 3, the first day of the 113th Congress.
He faces an election in 2014, and made clear he would run for the seat at that time, dispelling any suggestion that he might be merely a placeholder appointment.
Scott, 47, immediately addressed the primary issue currently consuming Congress: the battle over deficit reduction and the so-called "fiscal cliff."
"My objective is to start with the conversation with tax reform and spending reform," Scott said.
"We have a spending problem, ladies and gentlemen, and not a revenue problem," he added, aligning directly with his conservative predecessor DeMint, who has steadfastly refused to support any tax hikes, even for the very wealthy.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell congratulated Scott, saying the appointment was a "truly historic moment" for South Carolina and would allow a solid conservative to "fight hard for the values and principles he believes in.
"Tim will help us find real, lasting solutions to the economic challenges facing our nation in the 113th Congress," McConnell said.
Scott will become only the seventh African-American senator in US history, the first-ever from South Carolina, and the first from the South in more 130 years.
The fact that Scott is from South Carolina makes his appointment especially poignant. The state has had a history of racism in its legislature, which spilled openly into the US Senate in the mid-20th Century, when Senator Strom Thurmond preached segregation.
"If these walls could talk, what would they say? Just think," said Lindsey Graham, the senior US senator from South Carolina.
"This is a day that's been long in the making in South Carolina, and I'm very proud to see it come."
Scott was raised by a single mother after his parents divorced, and by his own admission he struggled in high school and at odd jobs.
But his life turned around after he met the owner of a local Chick-fil-A franchise, John Moniz, who mentored the young Scott and taught him about conservative principles.
"I could not tell a better story than about Tim Scott. Tim is what America is all about," Graham said.
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