Meet Tim Scott, the New Black U.S. Senator

When members of the U.S. Senate are sworn in on Jan. 3, 2013, all eyes will be on newly minted senator Tim Scott. While he and most Democrats have little to nothing in common, they consider him to be both honorable and likeable. Scott's appointment to replace retiring Sen. Jim DeMint is history making, but as you will learn here, it's not his first time making history.
When South Carolina Rep. Tim Scott, who was one of just two Black members in the House of Representatives, takes the oath of office in the U.S. Senate on Jan. 3, he will become the upper chamber's sole African-American.

Mississippi, Massachusetts, Illinois and now South Carolina are the only states that have ever sent an African-American senator to Washington. Scott will be the first African-American Republican to serve in the Senate since Edward W. Brooke.
Scott says the issue of his race has never been brought up on the campaign trail. “They’ve asked me questions about values and issues, and that’s an amazing thing," he told the Associated Press.
Scott, a Tea Party darling, is unapologetically pro-life, anti-marriage equality, supports small government and the Second Amendment, including several bills that support gun owners' rights.
Scott's first elective office was Charleston County Council member in 1995, beating a popular Democrat and becoming the first African-American Republican to be elected to any office in South Carolina since Reconstruction. He served on the council for 13 years and was elected its chairman four times.
Scott, elected to Congress in 2010, won the seat by defeating Paul Thurmond, son of the legendary segregationist Strom Thurmond, in the district where the first shots of the Civil War were fired.
Scott was elected president of his House freshman class. Majority Leader Eric Cantor once described him as "leadership personified."

Unlike fellow Black Republican Rep. Allen West, Scott chose to not join the Congressional Black Caucus. He appreciated the invitation he said at the time, but his "campaign was never about race."

Scott was raised by a single mother who worked 16 hours a day as a nurses' assistant to support him and his brother.
In addition to his mother, who "never quit" on him, Scott credits an early mentor John Moniz, an evangelical conservative and Chick-fil-A franchise owner, with his success. "He taught me how to be more valuable in my own eyes so that later I could be more valuable at work," Scott has said
After graduating from Charleston Southern University in 1988, Scott worked in the insurance industry and soon opened his own agency, Tim Scott Allstate, which he still owns. He also is a partner in a local real estate group.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Scott recalls being bullied in high school and college because he was poor and because his teeth went in two different directions. It "made my will to succeed even stronger," he said.