Sen. Tim Scott drops out of GOP presidential race, evidently surprising staff

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) announced late Sunday he was dropping out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination. "I am suspending my campaign," he told Trey Gowdy, a close friend and former congressman, on Fox News. The voters "have been really clear that they're telling me, 'Not now, Tim.'"

The news appeared to catch Gowdy off guard, and it definitely surprised Scott's campaign staff, who told Politico, The New York Times and The Associated Press they learned of his exit at the same time as other Fox News viewers. 

"Scott's team was so surprised by his exit," AP noted, "that just 13 minutes before he announced his departure, his campaign sent out an email soliciting supporters for donations to further Scott's 'strong leadership and optimistic, positive vision to lead our country forward.'" He told his staff in a call right after the Fox News interview.

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Scott is the second major Republican to drop out of the race, after former Vice President Mike Pence. "Scott, unlike Pence, entered the race with high expectations," and he built and maintained high approval ratings, Politico reported. "But he never caught a spark." Scott started off with a $22 million war chest and well-funded super PAC, but appeared to lose momentum in each of the three presidential debates, and it wasn't clear he would meet the threshold to participate in the fourth debate.

"One of the most memorable moments" in Scott's campaign came during the last debate, when "the senator, who is unmarried and has long brushed aside curious questions about his love life, appeared arm-in-arm with a woman who was later confirmed to be his girlfriend," the Times reported. "The post-debate revelation drew far more attention than his onstage performance." The larger problem for the campaign, the Times added, was that "Scott's brand of sunny optimism found no traction in the modern GOP," where former President Donald Trump is the clear front-runner for the presidential nomination.