I was going through the latest Harvard Harris poll, which currently shows Donald Trump up 6 points in the U.S. election, and I found something interesting. On page 15 there is a poll net favorability of political figures. I'm not sure why Elon Musk was included as a political figure as he isn't running for anything (excluding the poll he did on X regarding whether on not he should remain CEO...which he lost). But based on the poll he has a net favorability of 13%, and RKF Jr and Tim Scott have net favorbility ratings of 10%. Donald Trump currently has a net favorability rating of 4% and Joe Biden is at -10%.
Tim Scott is an interesting political figure. He is 1 of only 12 African Americans ever to serve in the U.S. Senate, was the only one when he was first appointed by then governor Nikki Haley and is currently the only African American Republican senator.
Senator Scott made headlines in 2020 when, the the wake of the George Floyd/Black Lives Matter protests, he proposed a police reform bill that covered many, though not all, of the same issues as the Democrats version. Some of the key differences were qualified immunity, (Scott's bill made it easier to sue police departments as opposed to the Democratic version that made it easier to go after individual officers, no knock warrants (Democrats sought to ban the practices federally and encourage it's ban at the state level, whereas Scott's bill would have merely studied the issue), choke holds (both bills sought to eliminate choke holds but Scott's bill had a more narrow definition), and transfers of military equipment to police (Democrats wanted to ban that, Scott's bill did not.) Republican Senator Rand Paul had a reintroduced the Justice For Breona Taylor Act which was separate bill to ban no knock raids. Tim Scott offered Democrats the opportunity to amend his bill and he had assurances from majority leader Mitch McConnell that up to 20 amendments would be allowed but the Democrats decided not to play ball and they filibustered Scott's bill and the Democrat's bill lacked the votes to pass on even a simple majority.
Senator Scott ranks high on the list for potential vice presidential nominees for former president Trump. The latest poll shows he is second overall behind governor Ron Desantis on who voters would like to see as a VP pick and third behind Ron Desantis and Vivek Ramaswamy among Republican voters.
But when looking at which VP candidate would give the most boost to a Trump ticket, the poll is showing Senator Scott (Desantis isn't even in the top 10), followed by Vivek Ramaswamy.
Ramaswamy edges out Scott in the boost category for Republicans only, but winning over independents and potentially some disaffected Democrats will be very important in such a tight election.
It would be interesting to see a vice presidential debate between Tim Scott and Kamala Harris where she would be pressed to answer why she choose to go along with the filibuster against a good but imperfect police reform bill rather than offering amendments.
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