WASHINGTON: US Senator Tim Scott announced on Sunday that he is withdrawing from the US presidential race, saying voters had given him a clear message of “not now.”

The South Carolina lawmaker, who was running to become the first Black Republican president, had been struggling to rise above the pack in the party’s crowded field. Polling in sixth place among Republican primary candidates, the 58-year-old had only 2.5 per cent of the vote, according to the RealClearPolitics average of recent major opinion polls.

“I am suspending my campaign. I think the voters who are the most remarkable people on the planet have been really clear that they’re telling me: ‘Not now Tim,’” he told the Fox News programme “Sunday Night in America.”

Scott officially announced he was running for the Republican nomination in May after spending months visiting the states considered crucial to gaining early momentum in the contest.Scott was one of five Republicans appearing in the third televised Republican debate last Wednesday as challengers for the party’s nomination sparred over Ukraine, China, abortion and the future path of the party.

Published in Dawn, November 14th, 2023