Updated April 12, 2023 at 7:48 AM ET
Republican South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott has taken a significant step toward a presidential bid, launching an exploratory committee.
An exploratory committee allows him to raise money that could then be transferred to an official presidential campaign.
Scott, the only Black Republican currently in the U.S. Senate, launched his committee Wednesday (April 12), which he noted in a video is the day marking the beginning of the Civil War at Fort Sumter in South Carolina.
His launch comes before planned travel this week to Iowa, New Hampshire and back home to South Carolina as he continues his "Faith in America" tour.
Scott's video is also titled "Faith in America." "I bear witness that America can do for anyone what she has done for me," he says in it.
He adds: "I will never back down in defense of the conservative values that make America exceptional."
Should he make his candidacy official — as expected — Scott, 57, would join his fellow South Carolinian Nikki Haley, a former governor of the state; as well as former President Donald Trump, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and others in the Republican primary field.
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