Senator Tim Scott drops out of the 2024 presidential race - five days after disappointing showing in third GOP primary debate

South Carolina Senator Tim Scott has announced he is suspending his 2024 presidential campaign. 

Scott, 58, told Fox News in an interview on Sunday evening that he had dropped out of the 2024 race for the White House. 

It comes just four days after he showed up to the third GOP primary debate with his girlfriend Mindy Noce, 47, ending months of speculation about his love life. 

Scott posed for photos with the mother-of-three behind his debate lectern and briefly held her hand in a touching moment after a tense night in the GOP primary.

The lone Black Republican in the U.S. Senate, Scott began his campaign in May, promising to present an optimistic, forward-looking vision for America. 

He portrayed himself as a deeply conservative candidate who was more capable of healing political divisions in the United States than frontrunner and former President Donald Trump and another candidate, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

While Scott, who is from South Carolina, enjoyed a modest, but measurable bump in opinion polls in some states over the summer, voter excitement proved short-lived. 

He failed to establish and defend a lane for himself in a relatively crowded field.

Like other candidates, he never articulated to Trump supporters why they should move on from the former president, who is still well liked by most primary voters.

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