Tim Scott Asserts That His Marital Status Doesn’t Matter to Voters

Bachelorhood is more of a disadvantage on the campaign road than everywhere else. Only Grover Cleveland and James Buchanan have ever won the presidency without a wedding ring.

And, with the questions already being raised about Tim Scott’s single status, the South Carolina senator will have a difficult time becoming the third.

According to the Republican presidential candidate, his primary opponents are fueling many of these worries. “People plant stories that have conversations to distract from our rise in the polls, to distract from [the] size of our audience,”

Scott said Thursday during a visit to New Hampshire when presented with a recent Axios article about GOP contributors being concerned about his marital status.

“What we’ve seen is that poll after poll indicates that voters don’t care, but opponents appear to care, and so media coverage planted by opponents is acceptable.” The good news is that we will continue to fight the good fight.”

While Scott did not name his opponents, he may have been alluding to a story written this week by Boston Globe writer Renée Graham headlined “Tim Scott Has a Woman Problem.”

Given the right’s enduring homophobia, the columnist contended that Scott’s bachelorhood is especially problematic for a potential Republican president.

“‘Bachelor status’ is code for’sexual identity,'” Graham said. “And Republicans who are opposed to a candidate facing four criminal trials may be even less likely to support someone they suspect is a closeted gay man.”

When South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham campaigned for president in 2016, he faced a similar problem. Graham, a longtime bachelor, was plagued by queries about his love life throughout the 2016 race, and at least two late-night broadcasters made veiled comments about his sexuality.

Scott has been reticent to divulge many specifics about his dating life. However, when he originally announced his campaign in May, he admitted to actively dating. “There’s always time for a great relationship with a wonderful woman, and I thank God that that is happening,” he said to NBC News.

Scott, a two-term senator, has also attempted to recast the liability as a selling feature for voters, telling Axios that if elected, he would “have more time, energy, and latitude to do the job” than a married guy. In the same interview, he stated that an increasing number of Americans may connect to a middle-aged bachelor.

“The fact that half of America’s adult population is single for the first time,” he added, “to suggest that somehow being married or not married is going to be the determining factor on whether or not you’re a good president or not—it sounds like we’re living in 1963, not 2023.”

Fair or not, Scott deflected queries about his love life early in his political career by boldly proclaiming himself a 30-year-old virgin. He also pushed for sexual abstinence until marriage, which he did until 2012.

“In the end, the Bible is unequivocal: abstinence until marriage.” “Not to do so is a sin,” he told National Journal at the time, while he intimated in the same interview that he may not have been chaste. When asked whether he still followed the same qualities he did at 30, the then 46-year-old said,

“Yeah, not as well as I did back then…. You’re better off waiting. I really wish we had more tolerance as a group.”

When Washington Post writer Ben Terris, who authored the National Journal story, asked Scott whether he was still a virgin soon after announcing his presidential run in 2024, the subject came up again.

“I’m not talking about my sex life with Ben Terris,” Scott protested, before offering a tried-and-true reason to avoid any embarrassing questions. “I have to go potty.”