"How does the poor Black son of a single mother beat a Thurmond in South Carolina?"
He was the Tea Party pick in 2010.
Scott finished first in the nine-candidate Republican primary of June 8, 2010, receiving a plurality of 32% of the vote.[SUP]
[35][/SUP] Fellow Charleston County Councilman
Paul Thurmond, son of U.S. Senator
Strom Thurmond, was second with 16%. Carroll A. Campbell III, the son of former
Governor Carroll A. Campbell, Jr., was third with 14%.[SUP]
[15][/SUP][SUP]
[36][/SUP] Charleston County School Board member Larry Kobrovsky ranked fourth with 11%. Five other candidates had single-digit percentages.[SUP]
[37][/SUP]
Because no candidate had received 50% or more of the vote, a runoff was held on June 22 between Scott and Thurmond. Scott was endorsed by the anti-tax
Club for Growth,[SUP]
[38][/SUP] various
Tea Party movement groups, former Alaska Governor and Vice Presidential nominee
Sarah Palin,[SUP]
[2][/SUP][SUP]
[39][/SUP] Republican House
Whip Eric Cantor,[SUP]
[40][/SUP] former
Arkansas governor
Mike Huckabee,[SUP]
[41][/SUP] South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, and the founder of the
Minuteman Project.[SUP]
[9][/SUP] He defeated Thurmond[SUP]
[42][/SUP] 68%–32% and won every county in the congressional district.[SUP]
[43][/SUP][SUP]
[44][/SUP]