Tim Scott brings his girlfriend Mindy Noce on stage amid GOP debate

Tim Scott ended months of speculation about his love life by bringing his girlfriend on stage after the Republican presidential debate in Miami. The 58-year-old senator from South Carolina made his first public appearance with Charleston interior designer Mindy Noce, 47, after Wednesday’s showdown between the GOP candidates. Scott posed for photos with the mother of three behind his debate lectern and briefly held her hand in a touching moment after a tense night in the GOP primaries.

Set up by one of Scott’s friends at church, they bonded over talking about God and using an app to do a Bible study together. Senator Scott confirmed to DailyMail.com that the pair had been dating for ‘several months’ after Noce flashed a sharp-eyed smile for the cameras. The identity of his girlfriend has been a closely guarded secret since the start of his presidential campaign. When asked for details, he said only that she was a “beautiful Christian girl” who enjoyed playing pickleball.

The speculation ended on Wednesday when Noce made her first public appearance. Amid a high-voltage debate with several personal attacks, Scott stayed out of the line of fire. And he seemed as happy as a clam when he made his very brief first appearance with Noce in front of the media. Scott casually said Noce is “great” when asked about her in the spin room after the debate. He did not respond to a follow-up question about whether her participation in Wednesday’s debate was a “soft-launch” to make their relationship more public.

It’s also unclear whether Mindy will make more public appearances on the campaign trail, with many of the other Republican candidates bringing their families and spouses along for the ride. Scott’s campaign confirmed to DailyMail.com that the two have been dating for about a year. A registered Republican, Noce’s profile page for her job asks her to describe herself in one sentence. She wrote: ‘A mover and shaker with a creative eye and love for people!’ Despite Scott’s insistence that he was in a relationship, many were skeptical and asked why he didn’t take his girlfriend on the campaign trail.

Meanwhile, a DailyMail.com poll released in August found that Iowa Republicans don’t really care whether the eventual nominee is married or not. Yet Americans have not voted a single man into the White House in more than a century. And earlier this year, reports surfaced indicating that donors were nervous about Senator Scott’s bachelor status. Seventy percent of Republicans in Iowa, the first state to consider who the nominee should be, said the issue of marital status was not important in deciding who to support. Only 26 percent said it mattered, according to the poll JL Partners conducted for DailyMail.com in July. In September, Scott told a crowd in Iowa, “I’m dating a sweet Christian girl,” though her identity remained secret until last night.

The Washington Post published an in-depth piece on the senator’s love life in September, and Scott said a friend from church set the couple up. The two hit it off by talking about God and using an app to do a Bible study together. On a date at a restaurant in Charleston, she ordered the steak and he the swordfish, and although they shared the dishes, the senator later discovered that she did not like swordfish.

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