OOPS! Copyright Page of Tim Scott’s Memoir Says He’s Preparing a Presidential Bid, Publisher Calls it an ‘Error’

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The publisher of Sen. Tim Scott’s (R-SC) memoir had to issue an awkward mea culpa for a single sentence on the copyright page that suggested the South Carolina Republican was preparing to launch a presidential campaign.

It hardly needs to be explained that announcing you’re running for President of the United States is a really big deal. Throwing your hat in this particular ring invites an enhanced level of media scrutiny into every aspect of your political, professional, and personal life and imposes a staggering host of federal campaign finance law requirements. Normally, such announcements are done with a lot of fanfare, in carefully-orchestrated events at rallies packed with enthusiastic supporters and coordinated social media messaging.

It’s not usually done via small print on the copyright page of a memoir.

But Scott’s new book, America, a Redemption Story: Choosing Hope, Creating Unity, seemed to do just that with the following two sentences:

Senator Scott is a rising star who sees and understands the importance of bipartisanship to move America forward. This book is a political memoir that includes his core messages as he prepares to make a presidential bid in 2022.

The Post and Courier first reported the unusual copyright page comment on Friday, pondering if it was “a mistake or a foreshadowing of things to come.”

The paper’s senior politics reporter Caitlin Byrd noted that Scott has frequently faced questions about a potential presidential bid, and “[h]is go-to response has been to volley back with a lighthearted line about running for president of his homeowners association,” but he kept to a serious response when asked about the text in his book, repeatedly denying any White House ambitions:

“It certainly is my opportunity to share my story — the pain and the promise of my story — with the American people without any question,” Scott said of his latest output. “I hope that it goes beyond the borders of South Carolina, but it is absolutely not the beginning of a presidential election.”

Scott, who is up for reelection in November, said his focus politically is “to win the support of South Carolinians for the job of being their United States Senator for another six years.”

Asked again if the book is the start of a future White House bid, Scott replied: “Not for me it’s not.”

Scott did remark that he found it “fascinating that that’s the copy on the book.”

Byrd followed up her reporting on Sunday with a confirmation from the book’s publisher that Scott had not endorsed the copyright page language from the book’s publisher.

“The description on the copyright page was our error and is not accurate. It was not done at the direction or approval of the Senator or his team. We are working to correct this immediately,” said a spokesperson from Thomas Nelson, an imprint of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, in a statement provided to The Post and Courier.

America, a Redemption Story is Scott’s third book, set to be released on Aug. 9. Thomas Nelson has not specified how exactly it plans to “correct” the “error,” and the publisher’s spokesperson did not have any information when asked if that could include reprints of the book.

Scott, a Charleston native, served in the Charleston County Council and South Carolina’s House of Representatives before being elected to Congress in 2010. Former Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC) appointed him to the Senate to replace retiring Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), making Scott the first African-American to represent the Palmetto State in the Senate. He won the 2014 special election to complete DeMint’s term and then re-election to his first full term in 2016. Scott is on the ballot again this year and expected to easily defeat his Democratic challenger, State Rep. Krystle Matthews (D-SC).

The senator’s protestations aside, he is indeed on many political commentators’ shortlists for potential 2024 contenders, and will be among the names polled in the straw poll at CPAC coming up next month in Texas.