The Plot Thickens Around GOP Candidate Tim Scott’s Alleged Girlfriend
“I can’t imagine dragging her onto the campaign trail unless I have the intention of marrying her,” he said of her absence, which Republicans are clocking.
Politics

Republican donors have been chattering recently about their concerns that Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), who’s running for president, is unmarried at age 57. Scott, an Evangelical Christian, has implied he lost his virginity sometime between the age of 30 and 46, and more recently said that he has a girlfriend. Now, we’re hearing that people are skeptical that Scott’s purported girlfriend exists.
A new story in the Washington Post says Scott’s romantic pursuits “aren’t a scandal so much as they are a mystery”—and a possible liability in the GOP primary where Evangelical voters in Iowa, who value marriage and children, have a lot of sway. (Plus, Scott is running against two preeminent Wife Guys: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Vice President Mike Pence.) Reporter Ben Terris said there’s no evidence that Scott is gay, but he couldn’t pin down any evidence about women Scott claims to have dated, either. Nor could he confirm that Scott had been previously engaged, as Scott said on CNN in 2017.
Jennifer DeCasper, Scott’s close friend and campaign manager, told Terris late in 2022 that the Senator’s dating life was “nonexistent.” Then, on the campaign trail in May, Scott said he had a girlfriend. After that, Terris started digging around on the girlfriend and said that he “technically…can’t verify that she exists,” because the campaign declined to share her name or make her available for an interview. Six of Scott’s friends said they didn’t know anything about a girlfriend. DeCasper did, however, say that “she’s personally hung out with her at the zoo.”