(WASHINGTON) — South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott is helping with an effort aimed to draw Black and Hispanic voters in battleground states — a key voting bloc as the election approaches — to former President Donald Trump through a new $14 million outreach effort.
Scott, who suspended his GOP presidential campaign last November, announced the campaign from the Great Opportunity PAC, a conservative super PAC that was formed in December 2023.
Although Scott promised $14 million in the initiative, the PAC currently has about $50,000 in its bank account, according to its most current Federal Election Commission filing. A representative for Scott did not immediately return ABC News’ request for comment regarding the funds.
While the super PAC has yet to disclose the source of its new $14 million, a big chunk of the $50,000 the group has in the bank came from a super PAC that used to support Scott’s now-suspended presidential campaign, Trust in the Mission PAC. During his presidential campaign, the pro-Scott super PAC raised more than $21 million from major GOP donors.
Scott said the funds in this new effort will go toward outreach to the Black and Hispanic community in Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — considered battleground states in 2024 — in an effort to sway them to vote for Trump in November.
The campaigns of both Trump and President Joe Biden have worked to court Black and Hispanic voters — a key demographic that the candidates need to harness for a November win.
During a briefing on the initiative on Tuesday, Scott told reporters that Black and Hispanic voters “are wide open for a political shift.”
Of the $14 million budget that has been allocated for the initiative, $9 million will be dedicated to voter contact, $4.7 million will be put toward media and the rest will be dedicated to research, data and operations.
Scott and other elected officials are expected to help promote the effort.
“There was always an undercurrent of conservatism in the Black community obviously, in the social and faith spaces that we felt the most and so we knew that there was potential there for us to spread the message about conservatism,” a source familiar with Scott’s plan said.
During the 2022 midterms, the GOP saw gains from the Latino community, particularly in Florida where Miami-Dade County, once a Democratic stronghold, flipped red.
In an ABC News/Ipsos poll last month, 74% of Black people supported Biden, 13% supported Trump and 13% supported someone else. That support of Biden is down 13 percentage points from the 2020 exit poll that showed 87% of Black people voted for Biden. However, the amount of support Biden lost appears to have shifted to other candidates rather than Trump.
Scott’s initiative comes as the Biden campaign counters the narrative that he’s losing support among Black voters.
In May, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Philadelphia where they courted Black voters. Also last month, Trump held a rally in South Bronx to attract Black and Hispanic voters.
The South Carolina senator’s effort also comes as he reportedly continues to be considered a possible running mate for Trump.
The Biden campaign blasted the effort by Scott and said that Biden is working hard to earn the Black vote.
“President Biden is on the campaign trail showing up — himself — to earn, and not ask for, Black Americans’ support,” Biden campaign senior spokesperson Sarafina Chitika said in a statement. “That is what leadership looks like.”
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