For Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, opportunity didn’t come without a struggle.
“To anyone who believes that opportunity ought not come with headwinds, I don’t know where you live, but it ain’t reality,” the 59-year-old mused to a crowd on a recent afternoon overlooking the U.S. Capitol.
Raised by a single mother in North Charleston, Scott described being plagued by low self-esteem after failing several courses in high school, including civics. He credits his faith for a reversal in political fortune.
Scott is the longest-serving Black senator in U.S. history, and the first Black chair of a standing Senate committee in his role atop the powerful Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.
“If we are to overcome the obstacles in our way, it won’t be red or blue. It won’t be black or white. It will be green,” the South Carolina Republican declared to rousing applause.
During Black History Month, Scott hosted an Opportunity Summit event where he announced his goal of making $1 trillion in investments accessible in underserved communities over the next decade. He was joined by Walter Davis, a founding member of the holding company, Peachtree Providence Partners.
“It is incredibly important for us to figure out how to unlock capital for disadvantaged communities,” Scott explained. “My goal is to set the kind of parameters that allows for $1 trillion of capital to be set free in disadvantaged communities in the next 10 years. I believe we can get to $2 trillion!”
Scott pointed to his own experience as a small business owner when he ran an insurance firm prior to entering politics.
“That’s called the American way, or at least it’s supposed to be the American way,” Scott said. “And I aim to make sure that, from a banking perspective, we have the flexibility of regulators so that small business owners with a good plan, with decent credit, have access to the capital to start hiring people from their own communities.”
Scott has made economic development a core pillar of his policy agenda, which includes affordable housing, education, low tax rates and financial literacy and inclusion. He cited proposed legislation, such as the Road to Housing Act that seeks to expand housing supply, and the Empowering Main Street in America Act, meant to streamline access to capital access for more entrepreneurs.
“Those two things, housing and small businesses, transform minority communities and disadvantaged communities all across America,” Scott said.
The Republican lawmaker also continues to champion the expansion of his Opportunity Zones initiative, bipartisan legislation passed as part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act he spearheaded to provide federal tax incentives to economically distressed areas. The initiative has generated more than $85 billion in investment, according to Scott.
“He’s the father of Opportunity Zones,” President Trump touted this month during a White House Black History Month reception. “He came into the White House, the Oval Office, with this idea, and it’s probably the number one economic development project ever in our country.”
In an op-ed Friday for Fox News, Scott said he wants to unlock opportunities for others just as his family sacrificed for him.
Scott told the story of his grandfather, who was born in 1921 and dropped out of school when he was 8 years old. He said he never learned to read or write, but had a photographic memory and once advised him that “I could be a victim or I could be victorious, but I couldn’t be both”
“A man who had no access, lived long enough to watch me beat Strom Thurmond’s son for Congress in the place where the Civil War started,” Scott reflected. “Our relatives have paid too high a price for us not to see discomfort as a motivating factor for our success.”
