Tim Scott is on Trump’s short list of VP candidates. What happens if Scott leaves the Senate? * SC Daily Gazette
A brief explanation of the procedure for filling the U.S. Senate vacancy is filled in South Carolina, since Tim Scott could be a potential running pair to Donald Trump.
By Abraham Kenmore
U.S. Sen. Tim Scott is reportedly on Donald Trump’s short list of candidates to join his ticket, raising the question of who would replace South Carolina’s junior senator — and how.
Scott has been viewed as to be a possible running partner for Trump since Scott was eliminated in November in a time in a time that the GOP presidential field was full. The speculation really accelerated following Scott’s on-stage support by Trump two months after. Scott has been such a passionate fan, Trump has said the senator is an more effective campaigner as Scott was for him.
“He was very successful (in in the first primary) however he was not so ferocious as he normally is because he’s not willing to be announcing himself. It’s fascinating,” Trump said at an event held in North Charleston in February.
Speculation may end Thursday night.
Trump has hinted that Trump “most likely” would announce his vice-presidential pick in his live debate with the president Joe Biden in Atlanta.
If Trump decides to go with Scott and the ticket is a winner in November the next South Carolina U.S. senator would take office just as Scott did in 2013.
In accordance with laws of the state, the governor is able to replace anyone U.S. senator who leaves his or her post before the end of the term. The appointment is in place until the next general election. It is which is considered to be a special election in that Senate seat, as per the State Elections Commission.
In December 2012, the then-Gov. Nikki Haley appointed Scott to succeed U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint from Greenville who quit two years into his term of six years to head the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
Scott was just elected for the coast 1st Congressional District. Instead of assuming another session within the U.S. House, the former Charleston County Council chairman was admitted to the U.S. Senate in January 2013, making him the first South-based Black Republican senator since Reconstruction.
The seat was vacated after going through the normal process of voting in 2014. Scott took the GOP primary that year by an 80-percentage point landslide. He then defeated his Democratic opponent by 24 points in November, to finish the remainder of DeMint’s mandate.
Scott was able to beat his rivals in 2016 to take home his first term in full. He won another easily in 2022 in the Senate race he claimed was his final.
If Scott is removed from Senate U.S. Senate after November — roughly 2 years in a term of six years — Governor. Henry McMaster would appoint his replacement.
South Carolina is one of 37 states that usea governor’s appointment in order to fill Senate vacant seats until the time of a general election. Ten of them require that the governor nominate an interim senator from an identical political group that is the senator who is retiring as per the Congressional Research Service.
South Carolina does not mandate that the parties align. It’s just a fact that McMaster who was the state’s former Republican Party chairman, would choose an incumbent Republican.
In this hypothetical scenario should McMaster’s appointed representative decide to remain in the Senate and the interim president be able to participate in a primary and the general elections in 2026, to complete the remaining term of Scott’s tenure until 2028.
McMaster has not commented regarding whether he had candidates in mind for replacing Scott.
“It would be premature at this point to make plans,” McMaster spokesperson Brandon Charochak said Wednesday.
Scott’s spokesperson Scott did not want to discuss the matter.
Governors are able to claim an Senate seat on their owns in the event of a vacancy. However, voters don’t generally take kindly to that.
This has only happened one time within South Carolina.
In April 1965 the governor was then. Donald Russell resigned following the death of U.S. Sen. Olin Johnston, allowing Russell’s lieutenant governor to rise to the position of governor and then appoint Russell to fill the vacant Senate seat.
However, Russell was not in the Senate for long.
He was removed from the post in the primary of Fritz Hollings in the 1966 Democratic primary. Hollings did not just serve the remainder of Johnston’s term, but was in South Carolina’s Senate over 38 years which makes him the eighth-longest-serving U.S. senator in history at the time of his passing away in 2019. (When Hollings retired in 2004 the electorate chose DeMint to succeed him.)