Deep-pocketed donors give fresh attention to Tim Scott’s long-shot presidential bid

CNN  — 

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott – whose presidential campaign announced this week that it has more than $21 million in cash reserves – is getting fresh attention from deep-pocketed donors looking for alternatives to the front-runners in the GOP primary, people familiar with the outreach say.

Scott met late last month with billionaire businessman Ron Lauder for dinner in South Carolina, two sources familiar with the discussions confirmed to CNN. The two men, accompanied by one aide each, met for about an hour outside Charleston and discussed Scott’s background, his path to the nomination and how the 2024 race is shaping up, one person said. They have talked again in recent days, the source said.

So far, Lauder – an heir to the Estée Lauder cosmetics fortune – has not made a commitment to back Scott or anyone else in the GOP nomination fight, a source familiar told CNN.

Lauder, a long-time friend of former President Donald Trump and financial supporter of Republican candidates and causes, made clear last year that he would not support Trump’s bid. And his recent interaction with Scott – now considered to have long odds of becoming the GOP’s standard-bearer in 2024 – underscores that some big GOP donors remain dissatisfied with Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is running a far second behind Trump in many polls.

Politico first reported the meeting between Lauder and Scott.

Next month, Scott is scheduled to get face time with more Republican donors at a fundraiser organized with help from Andy Sabin, a metal mogul who said he has switched his support from DeSantis to Scott.

Scott is “the only candidate running for president that I’ve met that nobody has something bad to say about,” Sabin told CNN on Thursday.

Sabin said he hopes that anywhere between 30 and 50 people will attend the August 8 event in Bridgehampton, New York. The event will run “something like $1,000, $3,300” per person, Sabin said.

“I think it’s important to have a lower price tag so that people can really see who he is,” he said of Scott. “Once they get to know him, they are going to want to give him a lot more.”

Sabin says he has offered to host additional Scott fundraisers in Manhattan and Key Largo, Florida, in the coming months. Both Sabin and his son donated the maximum amount to Scott, and Sabin says he will likely end up giving in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to Scott’s associated super PAC.

The main pro-Scott super PAC – Trust In the Mission, or TIM, PAC – announced Thursday that it had brought in nearly $20 million during the April-to-June fundraising quarter and had $15 million remaining in cash reserves.

Separately, Scott’s campaign said it raised $6.1 million during the second quarter and started July with more than $21 million in available cash.

Scott’s campaign total is dwarfed by the $20 million that the DeSantis campaign said it collected during the quarter. Trump’s campaign has announced a total haul of $35 million during the same period, but that figure includes money sent to a political action committee, which cannot be spent directly on his campaign.