South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds (R) says he will endorse Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) for president, becoming the first Republican senator to publicly endorse a candidate other than Donald Trump for president in 2024.
Rounds told The Washington Examiner on Wednesday that he has committed to backing Scott, who is expected to formally announce his campaign for president Monday in Charleston, S.C.
“I do,” Rounds said when asked whether he plans to endorse Scott. “I’ve already told him I would.”
“I think he is the closest to Ronald Reagan that you’re going to see,” he said.
Rounds praised Scott as a candidate who would “bring our country together” and “cares deeply about making the right decisions.”
“I believe he will build a good team. He’s got a business background. He’s got a great personal story and he understands and he truly cares about people,” he told The Examiner.
Scott, who has already formed an exploratory committee for a White House bid, says he will make a “major announcement” in Charleston May 22.
He is the only Black member of the Senate GOP conference and took a leading role in crafting elements of former President Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, notably tax incentives for investment in underserved communities.
The 57-year-old senator is running in sixth place in the expected Republican presidential primary field, garnering an average of 2 percent support in the polls.
Scott plans to travel to Iowa next month to attend Sen. Joni Ernst’s (R-Iowa) Roast and Ride fundraiser, along with several other announced and presumed 2024 GOP candidates.
Iowa will host the first contest of the 2024 Republican presidential primary process.
Trump has the support of 11 Senate Republicans, including Sens. Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), Mike Braun (Ind.), Ted Budd (N.C.), Steve Daines (Mont.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Bill Hagerty (Tenn.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (Miss.), Markwayne Mullin (Okla.), Eric Schmitt (Mo.), Tommy Tuberville (Ala.) and JD Vance (Ohio).
Graham, Scott’s home-state colleague, explained in a CNN interview last month that he endorsed Trump over his fellow South Carolinian because he thought Trump was “a good president on the things that mattered the most” such as securing the U.S.-Mexico border and fighting Islamic terrorist organizations.