Tim Scott is unusual among the remaining Republican presidential candidates in that he's not married, and that single status has caused more than a little consternation among donors and prompted speculation on his love life. On Wednesday evening, the South Carolina senator addressed his status with a surprise guest at the GOP debate in Miami: his girlfriend. A viewer calls it Scott's "soft launch" of Mindy Noce, who came up onto the stage with the 58-year-old at the end of the debate, even appearing to hold hands with him behind the podium.
Scott confirms to Axios that his date at the Adrienne Arsht Center was Noce, a Charleston design and renovations manager he says he's been seeing for "about a year or so." He'd first mentioned he had a beau back in May, though he'd scoffed at the time that he even needed to address it. "To suggest that somehow being married or not married is going to be the determining factor of whether you're a good president or not—it sounds like we're living in 1963 and not 2023," he said.
The New York Times calls Scott's big romantic reveal his "most viral debate moment," which may not bode well for Scott if his main goal was to impress viewers with his policy acumen and presidential character. "The moment grabbed more attention than anything Mr. Scott said during the debate ..., an unfortunate metaphor for his presidential run," the Times notes. The Daily Mail has more on Noce, whom it identifies as a 47-year-old mother of three who majored in health science at the College of Charleston. (More Tim Scott stories.)
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