MOSCOW, November 5 (RIA Novosti) — South Carolina Republican Candidate Tim Scott roundly defeated his Democratic and third party challengers to become the first African American senator from the South since the 1870s, Washington political news source The Hill reported.
Speaking to local press after voting on Tuesday, Scott noted that his then-projected landslide victory “says a lot about South Carolina and the evolution we have undergone in the last 50 years. If you look for a state with the most progress in the history of this country in the shortest period of time, look at South Carolina. We have a lot to be proud of.”
Scott soundly defeated Democrat Joyce Dickerson and Jill Bossi of the American Party, and was endorsed by traditional Republicans and Tea Party groups.
Scott is the first African American to have been elected to the Senate in South Carolina, and only the ninth black US senator. He is also the first African American from the South to be elected by popular vote. Republican Hiram Rhodes Revels was the first black US senator’; he was elected to the office by the Mississippi State Legislature in February 1870.
Scott was appointed to the US Senate seat for South Carolina in December 2012 by South Carolina Governor Nickki Hailey after the resignation of Republican Jim DeMint, who went on to become president of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
The Senator served as a Congressman for the state’s first district between 2011 and 2013, and as a member of the Charleston County Council for 13 years before that.
Senator Scott will join fellow Republican Lindsey Graham, the other Senator for South Carolina, who was reelected for a third term.
