Freshman South Carolina congressman Rep. Tim Scott will become his state's next senator, Gov. Nikki Haley announced in a news conference Monday. The Tea Party-bred congressman, elected to Congress in 2010 to represent a swath of his state's coastline, will become the only black member of the Senate when he takes on the seat being vacated by Sen. Jim DeMint, who is retiring to head the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation. Scott, a devout Christian and conservative Republican, turned to politics after being taught about conservative ideals by a person he met while he was working at a Chick-fil-A years ago. "He earned this seat," Gov. Haley said as she announced her selection and introduced Scott. Scott said he looked forward to serving his state alongside Sen. Lindsey Graham and praised Haley's governance. "Boy, does the future look great in South Carolina," he said, vowing that the state's economy would "hum like an engine."
