Scott’s campaign manager outlines strategy ahead of debate

Sen. Tim Scott’s (R-S.C.) presidential campaign manager on Monday laid out the South Carolina Republican’s strategy ahead of this week’s GOP debate, claiming Scott will take aim at rivals Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley.

“To say nothing of the obvious question: How can either candidate [DeSantis or Haley] present a contrast with Donald Trump when he made each of their political careers?” Scott’s campaign manager Jennifer DeCasper wrote in a memo released Monday. “That is the conversation Tim Scott will start Wednesday night.”

Scott has the “conservative credentials” the Republican base “demands,” which Haley “abandoned,” the memo claimed, calling Haley, a former South Carolina governor, “the darling of Never Trumpers.”

“Does anyone actually believe that a moderate who is running as the darling of Never Trumpers can win the GOP nomination?” DeCasper wrote. “Nikki’s canned lines can’t change the fact that her ceiling is low and getting lower.”

DeCasper predicts Haley and DeSantis will “devolve into a slugfest” during Wednesday night’s debate, which will take place in Miami.

“She’ll attack him for the failing candidate that he is,” she wrote in the memo. “He’ll attack her for being the moderate that she is. They’ll both be right.”

In the first two debates, Haley found herself sparring with several GOP rivals.

“We must move past just the ‘what’ of policy arguments and personal attacks and start asking ‘How do you actually win?'” DeCasper continued.

The memo argued Scott is the “best candidate” to flip swing states that Trump lost in 2020 to create a “red wave up and down the ballot.” Scott, however, has struggled to gain momentum in GOP primary polling, often garnering support in the single digits.

The Iowa evangelicals are in Scott’s “favor,” according to the memo, which claimed internal polling showed Scott has the highest net favorability rating of 77 percent in this demographic.

In an Iowa poll released last week by NBC News and the Des Moines Register, Scott came in fourth with 7 percent support, while former President Donald Trump garnered the most support with 43 percent. DeSantis and Haley tied for second place with 16 percent.

DeSantis, who was once thought of as the top alternative to Trump, has also struggled to make a dent in Trump’s considerable lead, with Haley steadily closing in on the Florida governor’s second-place position.

The memo argues Scott has the “optimistic vision voters want” that DeSantis “can’t articulate.”

Scott began his presidential campaign projecting an optimistic “nice guy” image, though he received calls to be more aggressive toward his GOP counterparts. In the first debate, Scott mostly avoided sparring with other candidates but tried to increase attacks in the second debate, which landed with mixed success.

Calling Scott the “man the left fears the most,” the memo pointed to an NBC News report that spoke with Democratic strategists who said Scott could pose a threat to President Biden in 2024.

“The left knows a Tim Scott-led ticket would usher in a red wave that would not just flip the White House but also carry the House and Senate. It would finally allow us to both win as conservatives and govern as conservatives,” DeCasper said.

The third debate will kick off at 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County, hosted by NBC News with partners Salem Radio Network and the Republican Jewish Coalition.

The Hill reached out to Haley’s and DeSantis’s campaigns for comment.