Senator Tim Scott is a 57-year-old man who has never been married and has rarely mentioned being in a relationship during several decades of working in politics. Then he alluded to having a romantic partner during an event organized by Axios in May, months into his campaign to be the Republican 2024 presidential nominee. “My girlfriend wants to see me when I come home,” the senator said. The ears of political reporters perked up.
For months, people have been wondering why other people (theoretically) care about Scott’s relationship status. In June, Slate’s Molly Olmstead explored why Scott’s claim that he was a “proud” virgin was politically advantageous in the ’90s, and why it made sense to walk it back in 2012. On Monday morning, Scott confirmed to Fox News that he has a “wonderful girlfriend,” then quickly added that the more important question is “Why are the headlines there?” (He claims it’s because his opponents are afraid of him.) Then, on Tuesday, the Washington Post published a lengthy piece in which Ben Terris investigated both whether Scott’s girlfriend is real and “a deeper question: Does anybody care?”
The Slate and Post pieces are worth reading in full if you want to learn more about purity culture, homophobia and racism among the GOP electorate and how single people are viewed in society in 2023. If, like me, you’re just nosy and find the idea of a presidential candidate making up a fake girlfriend both funny and sad, here’s a rundown of all the evidence that has been revealed in the past 48 hours.
Scott says he’s currently “taken.”
On Monday, the senator told a leering Brian Kilmeade, “I have a wonderful girlfriend and we have a wonderful relationship. The good news is God has blessed me with a smart, Christian woman.”
When the Fox News host pressed Scott on whether we’ll ever meet this alleged girlfriend, he said, “You will, of course — at some point.”
People claim they’ve seen Scott flirt with women, years ago.
Forty paragraphs into the Post piece, we’re no closer to learning details about Scott’s possibly real girlfriend. But Terris reveals that both he and Scott’s childhood friend have personally witnessed him flirting with women:
Scott was a charmer, even back then, according to Brian Moniz, John’s son and Scott’s friend since childhood. Scott and the younger Moniz used to spend a lot of time hanging around the mall and flirting with girls.
“He’s always had a way with the ladies,” Moniz said.
I’ve seen Scott flirt. It was 2012, and we were having lunch at Clyde’s in downtown Washington. A waitress came up and put her hand on his freshly shaved (and perspiring) head.
Terris also includes this disclaimer dismissing the idea that “single” is just a way of implying that the senator is gay:
(And let’s just get this out of the way: This is not a wink-wink story that uses “single” in place of “gay.” Despite the retrograde assumptions people still like to make about wifeless men of a certain age, there really is nothing to suggest that Scott is anything other than a confirmed bachelor in the most literal sense of the phrase.)
None of Scott’s friends think he has a girlfriend.
In a 2017 CNN interview, Scott claimed he had once been engaged. But Moniz, his childhood friend, was unaware of this. When Terris asked him about it in August he said, “No, I don’t think he’s ever been engaged.” As for a current girlfriend, he said, “I am not aware of anyone at this time.”
Terris asked various other friends about Scott’s relationship and none of them could vouch for the girlfriend’s existence. “Six friends I spoke with said they didn’t know about a woman in his life,” he wrote. “Others never returned my calls.”
Scott says he and his girlfriend bonded over the Bible, swordfish, and pickleball.
Two weeks ago, the campaign allowed Terris to briefly interview Scott on the subject, suggesting it would be his only commentary on his relationship (though he later decided to talk about his girlfriend on Fox News too). The senator said he’s very protective of his loved ones, explaining, “I signed up for this. If we make it, she will be signing up for it as well, but at least then she’ll know what she’s getting into. But until then, the only conversation I’m going to have about her in any form or fashion is right now.”
Then he filled Terris in on the details of their courtship:
For months, Scott explained, a friend from church had been trying to set him up with a woman the friend knew. Scott had told him that he wasn’t ready for a relationship. Then, late last year, the friend texted Scott the woman’s photo.
“You know what?” Scott recalled telling his friend after seeing the picture. “I’ve prayed on it. Tell me about her again?”
He got the woman’s number. They started talking, hitting it off with discussions about God and using a phone app to do a Bible study together. Scott said he loved her laugh. They had dinner at a downtown Charleston restaurant. She got the steak, he got the swordfish, and they shared even though, as Scott would later learn, she didn’t care for swordfish. They played pickleball, and Scott was embarrassed to find out that he was the “weak man on the court.”
The only other person willing to verify the girlfriend’s existence is Scott’s campaign manager.
While Terris added some intriguing details to this weird subplot in the 2024 campaign, ultimately he was not able to prove or disprove that Scott’s girlfriend is real:
He wouldn’t tell me her name, and the campaign declined to make her available to chat, even off the record. Technically I can’t verify that she exists, except to note that for a presidential campaign to essentially reverse-catfish America would be insane.
Terris found only one tiny shred of girlfriend corroboration: Jennifer DeCasper, Scott’s close friend and campaign manager, “offered that she’s personally hung out with her at the zoo.”
Maybe Scott’s public description of his new romance will be enough to assuage the concerns of conservative Republican donors. Axios recently reported that potential donors who’ve asked about Scott’s personal life were stonewalled by the campaign, and “for some, it has only fueled their curiosity and apprehension.”
But it seems unlikely that the details offered by Scott this week will put the question to rest entirely. He might have been better off declaring, “There will be no further explanation. There will be just reputation.” Everyone would still be confused, but cultivating an air of mystery has certainly helped Taylor Swift keep people interested.
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