South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has appointed GOP Congressman Tim Scott to the U.S. Senate. He is the first Black senator from a southern state since Reconstruction and he is the only African American currently serving in the U.S. Senate. Scott is taking the seat of Jim DeMint who is leaving the Senate to head the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
Senator Scott was elected to the House of Representatives in 2010. Previously, he owned a local insurance agency aligned with AllState. He was also a partner of a local real estate group. He served one term in the South Carolina House of Representatives and for 13 years on the Charleston County Council.
Senator Scott was raised by a single mother and is a graduate of Charleston Southern University. He will be up for reelection to the Senate in 2014.
