Congratulations to Sen. Tim Scott, who just became the first African-American to be elected to the U.S. Senate from the South since Reconstruction. Although he was running as an incumbent, he was not initially elected to the position. South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley appointed him to replace former Sen. Jim DeMint when DeMint stepped down to become president of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. Scott was officially sworn in as a senator on January 2, 2013.
GOP Tim Scott wins in South Carolina. 1st elected African-American to Senate from a Confederate state since Reconstruction #Election2014
— Joseph Kerry (@josephkerry) November 5, 2014
Tim Scott becomes the fifth African American elected to Senate, winning his race in South Carolina, per CNN.
— Nia-Malika Henderson (@NiaWaPo) November 5, 2014
An African-American, Republican Sen Tim Scott, is winning overwhelmingly in SC just a dozen yrs after Strom retired.
— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) November 5, 2014
Twitter feed inundated with racist right-wingers sending their congratulations to Tim Scott. Weird.
— Robert Tracinski (@Tracinski) November 5, 2014
Prior to being appointed and then elected to the U.S. Senate, Scott served as a congressman from South Carolina. He served one term in the U.S. House before being appointed to the Senate. In his House race during the 2010 election cycle, Scott won by more than 35 percentage points and won every single county in his district.
Scott is a Republican.
