Republican debate: Tim Scott hailed as the most ‘improved’

Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) was a changed man during the second 2024 Republican presidential primary debate.

The self-described happy warrior and slower-speaking candidate made his presence known Wednesday night in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum’s Air Force One Pavilion.

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Scott was the second debate’s most “improved,” according to University of Michigan debate director Aaron Kall, benefiting “from getting the first question about the auto workers strike given what he previously said about Reagan and the firing of air traffic controllers.”

“Scott attacked [biotechnology entrepreneur Vivek] Ramaswamy over his Chinese business interests and [Gov. Ron] DeSantis (R-FL) for comments over slavery,” Kall told the Washington Examiner.

The Scott campaign did amplify the senator’s moment with DeSantis over Florida’s new black history curriculum teaching standards, including his line that former President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society was “hard to survive” because it caused people “to take the black father out of the household to get a check in the mail, and you can now measure that in unemployment, in crime, in devastation.”

“Black families survived slavery,” Scott said. “Our nation continues to go in the right direction. It’s why I can say I have been discriminated against, but America is not a racist country.”

“The Ronald Reagan Library GOP Debate was the perfect backdrop for Tim Scott’s debate victory: showing what it means to inspire and be presidential, while showing the fight and contrast Republican voters hunger for,” Scott campaign spokeswoman Nicole Morales added.

Scott’s criticism of Ramaswamy’s business dealings prompted decorum to deteriorate among the candidates as others also scrutinized the entrepreneur.

“It’s a debate between you and you,” Scott told Ramaswamy at one point.

“Thank you for speaking while I’m interrupting,” Ramaswamy said at another.

Republican strategist Cesar Conda, founding partner of GOP lobbying firm Navigators Global, agreed Scott had “a strong second half” and “was much better than in the first debate.”

“But I found the governors more compelling because of their executive experience,” Conda said. “Senators don’t make great presidents.”

Similarly, Ed Lee, director of Emory University’s Alben W. Barkley Forum for Debate, Deliberation, and Dialogue, disagreed with Scott’s strategy of undermining former U.N. Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. The senator scrutinized Haley for having $50,000 curtains in her U.N. ambassador’s residence in New York City, alleging she spent federal money on them. She responded that he had “bad information” and that he should do his “homework” because former President Barack Obama “bought them.”

“Really? Your attack on the only woman on the stage is that she shops too much and bought curtains?” Lee asked. “Is she really unreasonable for not sending back the curtains the Obama administration purchased? This was debate preparation malpractice by Tim Scott’s team.”

Kall additionally underscored that none of the candidates did anything to narrow former President Donald Trump’s “nearly insurmountable polling lead.” The Trump campaign called the debate “boring and inconsequential,” claiming “nothing that was said will change the dynamics of the primary” and that the former president will not participate in the third debate on Nov. 8 in Miami.

“[Former New Jersey Gov. Chris] Christie smartly tried to shame Trump into returning to the debate stage, but his Donald Duck line fell flat,” Kall, the debate coach, said. “Ramaswamy seemed to have regressed the most since his meteoric rise from the first debate. Ramaswamy was constantly attacked by most of the other candidates and complained about some of the same tactics he used in Milwaukee.”

“The candidates more forcefully attacked Trump for boycotting the debates, but he once again served as a footnote tonight,” he added. “The Milwaukee debate showed that even if some of the individual candidates deliver solid performances, this won’t be enough to move the needle unless they simultaneously do something to weaken Trump.”

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Haley was the first debate’s breakout star, leveraging her performance into polling momentum. She now polls in third place nationally, with 6% support behind Trump’s 57% and DeSantis’s 14%, according to RealClearPolitics. Scott has 3%.

All the candidates will have to disclose their third financial quarter fundraising records, which includes after the first debate, after this week’s Sept. 30 deadline.