By Pedro L. Gonzalez
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA — New details about Tim Scott’s presidential campaign might raise red flags for his supporters.
Last month, Politico dubbed Scott “the longshot candidate raising the most cash.” But on Sunday, Axios reported that Scott “has the only GOP presidential campaign that’s spending money faster than raising it.” Now, people have started to ask questions about who is benefiting from that burn.
A Twitter sleuth who simply goes by “Mel” published a thread on Monday about the spending habits of Scott’s political machine. In particular, she highlighted payments to an obscure firm called Meeting Street Services LLC.
We all know the GOP has a serious grifter problem but I hadn’t quite realized how bad it was until I started looking at FEC filing last month. I was interested when reports starting emerging about DeSantis “blowing through money.” And while DeSantis’ filings were predictable and… pic.twitter.com/p8xC9YIfTV
— Mel (@Villgecrazylady) August 7, 2023
According to South Carolina business records, that company was incorporated in Delaware on August 31, 2022. The address it has listed with the Federal Election Commission is a Staples store in North Charleston, SC.
Since Meeting Street Services began receiving payments from Scott and his affiliated committees in September 2022 – two months before he won reelection to the Senate –Scott remains its only political client.
Still, business is good. In all, Main Street Services has received over $10 million from Tim Scott for Senate, Tim Scott for America, Tomorrow Is Meaningful – Scott’s political action committee – and Great Opportunity Party, another committee affiliated with Scott, records show.
During the 2022 cycle alone, the company received $4,521,916 from Tim Scott for Senate in 21 payments, according to OpenSecrets vendor data. Among other things, the money reportedly went toward “digital persuasion” and “placed media.”
Likewise, payments from Tim Scott for America and his political action committee, Tomorrow Is Meaningful, were made to the firm for “digital media strategy consulting” and “online advertising.” But as The New York Times noted, the company has no online presence.
“The GOP has a serious problem with criminally greedy political consultants and their enablers,” wrote California’s National Republican Committeewoman Harmeet Dhillon in response to Mel’s thread. “Democrats do not have this issue to anything near the same degree.”
Up until now, Scott has been subjected to relatively little scrutiny compared to other candidates in the GOP primary, like former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
