NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (CNS) — South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott is scheduled to appear at a town hall and reception at the Newport Beach Country Club Monday evening, benefiting the Republican Party of Orange County.

Scott “will continue to share his message of optimism that is anchored in conservative values,” the Scott campaign’s communications director Nathan Brand told City News Service in an email.

Former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is billed as a special guest.

The visit will be Scott’s second to Orange County since declaring his candidacy for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. He conducted a fundraiser at the Laguna Niguel home of Dr. Nikan Khatibi and his wife, Parmis, June 16.

The visit comes three days after Scott spoke at the Republican Party of Iowa’s annual Lincoln Dinner in Des Moines, where he said, “I am so proud to be an American. My granddaddy, who was born in 1921 in the Deep South, taught me two really important lessons about being an American.

“The first thing he taught me was that we kneel to the Father in prayer. He taught me that James 5:16 says, ‘The prayers of the righteous avail much.’

“And even though we kneel to the Father in prayer, he said, lesson No. 2 is that we stand for the flag in respect. He said, ‘Our American flag is a symbol of freedom and liberty and justice for all.’”

The 57-year-old Scott announced his candidacy May 22 at Charleston Southern University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1988, declaring, “I am living proof that America is the land of opportunity, not a land of oppression.”

Scott also made a reference to his grandfather in that speech.

“By the time he was in the third grade, his education was over. He was forced out of school and had to start picking cotton,” said Scott, who would be the first Black Republican president and the first bachelor elected since Grover Cleveland in 1884.

“But he lived long enough to watch his grandson pick out a seat in Congress. That’s the evolution of the country we live in. My family went from cotton to Congress in his lifetime. And it was possible because my grandfather had stubborn faith. He had faith in God, faith in himself and faith in what America would be.”

According to a biography on his campaign’s website, Scott was raised in North Charleston, South Carolina, “in a poor, single-parent household” headed by his mother. After graduating from college, Scott was a financial adviser and owned an Allstate insurance agency.

Scott first ran for office in 1995, winning a special election for an at-large seat on the Charleston County Council. He lost a bid for the South Carolina Senate in 1996 and was reelected to the Charleston County Council in 2000 and 2004.

Scott was elected to South Carolina House of Representatives in 2008 and the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010. He was appointed by then-South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley to the U.S. Senate in 2013, replacing Jim DeMint, who resigned to become president of the conservative think tank, The Heritage Foundation.

Scott won a special election in 2014 to remain in the Senate and was elected to a full six-year term in 2016 and reelected in 2022.

Scott has called creating Opportunity Zones as part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as his signature piece of legislation. The provision of the law allows for certain investments in lower income areas to have tax advantages to put capital to work that would otherwise be locked up due to the asset holder’s unwillingness to trigger a capital gains tax.

Scott has pledged that on his first day as president, “the strongest nation on Earth will stop retreating from our own southern border.”

Scott said as president he would:

• "Expel illegal immigrants trying to enter the country by reinstating Title 42 to combat the fentanyl crisis”;
• “Fully fund the construction of the wall at the southern border, while strengthening law enforcement’s capabilities to detect drug smugglers and human traffickers before they enter our country”;
• “Recognize drug cartels as terrorists and let the world’s greatest military power defend our borders and our lives”; and
• “End sanctuary cities to stop illegal immigration, allowing local law enforcement to work with federal immigration authorities.

Scott has also pledged to “rebuild a military so lethal and powerful that our adversaries will fear us and our allies will respect us.”

Scott is among seven candidates to have qualified for the first debate of the 2024 campaign, set for Aug. 23 in Milwaukee, along with former President Donald Trump, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

Candidates must have a minimum of 40,000 unique donors to his or her principal presidential campaign committee (or exploratory committee) by Aug. 21, with at least 200 unique donors per state or territory in at least 20 states and or territories, under criteria established by the Republican National Committee.

Candidates must also poll at least 1% in three national polls or 1% in two national polls and 1% in one early state poll from two separate “carve out” states — Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina — recognized by the RNC.