South Carolina Just Elected Tim Scott

South Carolina just made history by re-electing Tim Scott, the South's first black senator since Reconstruction. This is a big deal considering that Reconstruction was more than a century ago. Scott, the incumbent, won his first full term as a senator over Democrat Thomas Dixon, the Post and Courier reported. But now that he's been re-elected, what are Scott's thoughts on his party's presidential candidate Donald Trump?

Scott has said on multiple occasions that he will vote for Trump, despite the statements of many members of the divided Republican Party who find Trump to be a worse option than his Democrat opponent Hillary Clinton, according to the New York Times. To be fair, Scott has criticized some of Trump's words and actions. He has also said that Clinton and other democrats have been as biased as Trump on issues of race, the Times reported.

"The truth is that both candidates have said some incredibly offensive and toxic things,” Scott told the New York Times. “I don’t defend, one iota, any of the indefensible, disgusting things that Donald Trump has said. I just simply make sure that I do my research to understand the offensive, troubling things that Hillary Clinton has said as well.”

The Republican senator initially supported Sen. Marco Rubio in his unsuccessful bid for the Republican nomination, even appearing in a campaign advertisement for the Florida senator, Politico reported. Later, he moved his support to Trump when the Donald became the Republican Party’s candidate. But Scott doesn’t deny that there is there is work to be done in terms of race relations. In July, he said during a year of being an elected official he was pulled over by the police seven times, the Times reported.

Scott has been in politics for quite a while; in the past he has served on the Charleston County Council, the South Carolina State Legislature, and the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2012, having just been elected to a second term in the U.S. House of Representatives, Scott was appointed to fill former Sen. Jim DeMint's vacant seat by Gov. Nikki Haley. Two years later, Scott ran in a special election and was formally elected to finish DeMint's term. Until this election, he was one of two African Americans in the U.S. Senate. By winning the South Carolina election, he became the first black person to be elected to both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Outside of his role as an elected official, Scott also owned Tim Scott Allstate and was a partner of Pathway Real Estate Group.

While Scott's re-election to the Senate is basically certain, we'll have to wait a few more hours to see whether Scott's candidate of choice wins the office of president.