Tim Scott earned 7% in SC poll on same day he launched presidential exploratory committee

South Carolina Republicans still favor Donald Trump as their 2024 nominee by a 21 percent margin — with two Palmetto state politicians ranking third and fourth behind the former president and Florida governor, Ron Desantis.

Presidential candidate Nikki Haley, once governor of South Carolina and former ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, earned 18 percent in the latest poll from Winthrop University taken among the state’s GOP primary voters.

Meanwhile, current South Carolina Senator Tim Scott’s announcement Wednesday that he’s taking the next step toward a bid for the presidency coincided with the release of the poll showing him fourth with just 7 percent support among voters in his own state.

Launching a presidential exploratory commission is traditionally the step taken right before a White House bid is announced. Scott is the only black Republican in the upper chamber and recently toured the country on his Faith in America listening tour.

Two South Carolina politicians, former Governor Nikki Haley (left) and Senator Tim Scott (right), are third and fourth, respectively, in the poll. Haley earned 18% and Scott, who launched a presidential exploratory commission on Wednesday, received 7% support

While nearly 7 in 10 Republicans polled say they approve of Scott’s work as a U.S. Senator, that support doesn’t seem to translate into a presidential bid.

DeSantis continues to gain popularity in the US, coming second with 20 percent of South Carolina Republican voters saying they would vote for Florida governor in a primary race.

Only four Republican candidates have so far officially announced a bid from the White House. This includes Trump, Haley, former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, and biotech multimillionaire Vivek Ramaswamy.

After Haley’s 18 percent, no other candidate in the poll could reach double digits. Haley is the first Indian American to serve in a presidential cabinet.

Former Vice President Mike Pence earned 5 percent, Trump’s ex-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo earned 2 percent, and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu only 1 percent.

Hutchinson failed to receive any support in the Winthrop poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.45 percent.

Trump’s team pumped out the poll Wednesday morning, praising “President Donald Trump is the clear favorite of South Carolina Republicans, according to a poll released Wednesday.”

“Trump is riding high and doubling support for the next candidate in the field,” said Winthrop poll director Dr. Scott Huffmon in a statement accompanying the release Wednesday morning.

Trump is still the favorite in South Carolina with 41% support among GOP primary voters in Palmetto state

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has not announced whether to run in 2024, consistently ranks second to Trump in national and state polls

South Carolina is an important early primary. Republicans will vote there third in the 2024 primary, after Iowa and New Hampshire. Democrats recently voted to make South Carolina their first primary contest state.

At the same time as the latest poll came out on Wednesday, Scott, 57, released a presidential platform video to coincide with his announcement that he is launching an exploratory commission.

In setting up an exploratory committee for a possible presidential run, Scott called for unity by invoking the start of the Civil War.

His video, posted to Twitter, includes images of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, where Confederate troops fired on this date more than 150 years ago, and references the bloody conflict — but blames President Joe Biden for dividing of the country.

“On this day, April 12, 1861, the first shots of the Civil War were fired in this port, and our country faced the decisive moment: Would we really be one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,” says Scott.

“America’s soul was tested – and we won,” he added in the voiceover. “Today our country is being tested again. Again, our division runs deep and the threat to our future is real. Joe Biden and the radical left have chosen a culture of resentment over grandeur. They promote victimization instead of personal responsibility and they indoctrinate our children to believe that we live in a bad country.’

He then used his own background to claim that he was a threat to the Democrats.

‘Because I disturb their story. I threaten their control. They know the truth of my life disproves their lies,” he said.

Scott is the first black candidate to enter the GOP primary field and the only black Republican U.S. Senator.

On Wednesday, he will be in Iowa, the lead state in the Republican presidential nomination process. After that stop, Scott travels to New Hampshire, the second primary contest state, on Thursday before returning to his home state of South Carolina on Friday for a local summit in Charleston.