Media trying to spin the narrative. Tim Scott wasn’t elected to the House of Representatives from a gerrymandered district. He received votes based on his character.
via The State
Strom Thurmond’s 1964 switch to the Republican Party helped make the GOP in vogue in South Carolina, prompting white conservatives to flock to the Grand Old Party. Now, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, the state’s first African-American senator, could help expand the party again, attracting minority voters, some conservatives say.
Scott was appointed to the Senate in December 2012, when U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint resigned to run the Heritage Foundation. Scott now faces his first statewide race, a November special election to fill the balance of DeMint’s unexpired term.
While Lindsey Graham, South Carolina’s other Republican U.S. senator, is besieged by GOP primary opponents, Scott faces no Republican challenge in June. However, two Democrats have launched campaigns for Scott’s seat: Rick Wade, a former S.C. cabinet director, U.S. Commerce Department official and adviser to Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns; and Richland County Councilwoman Joyce Dickerson.
If Scott wins the November contest and then again in 2016, he would become a “national symbol for conservative values in the black community, and he will begin to force a realignment” of African-American voters with the GOP, said Clemson University professor Dave Woodard, a Republican consultant.