By Taurean Small
/ CBS News
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The Senate’s only Black Republican is looking to be the face of minority outreach for the Trump campaign and down-ballot GOP candidates.
The Tim Scott-aligned Great Opportunity PAC announced Thursday that it will be spending at least $14.3 million this cycle targeting Black voters in battleground states. Scott, a rumored vice presidential pick for presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump, has said he believes he can deliver Black men for Trump, citing a Wall Street Journal poll in April showing President Biden is losing support among the crucial voting bloc.
“There’s no doubt that African American men are wide open for a political shift of partisan shift,” Scott said in a meeting with reporters on Tuesday.
Black voters have historically overwhelmingly supported the Democratic presidential nominees but Mr. Biden’s appeal appears to be softening. A March CBS News poll showed Trump nearly doubling his support among Black voters from 12% in 2020 to 23%.
“If Black voters do two things: some stay home and some come to the Right, there is no way [Democrats can] fill the hole,” Scott said.
A senior PAC official categorized the initiative as a “full-fledged campaign,” pointing out the PACs intentions to invest $4.8 million in earned and paid media including digital advertisement, $9 million in voter contact and more than a half million dollars in survey research, legal and operations, according to a memo from the PAC. The effort will also include ramped up appearances from Sen. Scott in minority neighborhoods across battleground states.
The announcement comes days after the Trump campaign unveiled its first field office of the cycle in North Philadelphia. Trump surrogates Reps. Byron Donalds and Wesley Hunt headlined Black voter engagement programming Tuesday across the battleground state of Pennsylvania including speaking at an event titled “Congress, Cognac & Cigars.” The Biden-Harris campaign responded to Trump’s recent minority outreach efforts by slamming his reliance on surrogates.
“President Biden is on the campaign trail showing up – himself – to earn, and not ask for, Black Americans’ support. That is what leadership looks like,” said Sarafina Chitika, a senior Biden-Harris spokesperson in a statement to CBS News.
Taurean Small is a 2024 campaign reporter for CBS News.
