Tim Scott, a U.S. Representative from South Carolina, is becoming the favorite to replace South Carolina Jim DeMint in the Senate. If appointed Scott, who is a Tea Party conservative, would become the first African-American Republican Senator since Reconstruction and the only black person in the Senate.
DeMint announced  his resignation from Congress Thursday morning, to take a job heading the conservative think-tank, Heritage Foundation.
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, also a Tea Partier, must make the appointment and DeMint has recommended Scott for the position. Â Whomever Haley appoints will hold the seat until a special election is held in 2014 to pick a permanent replacement.
Haley posted on her Facebook page today that “whomever I appoint will have the same philosophy of government that Jim DeMint and I share. With all the challenges we face as a state and nation, it is essential that the next senator from South Carolina be dedicated to the principles that our state most values.”