Sen. Tim Scott

Sen. Tim Scott has taken over $9.6 million from the finance, insurance, and real estate industries, far more than he has taken from other sectors.

Sen. Scott’s major individual donors include over $3 million from billionaire debt collection magnate Benjamin Navarro, whose company drew controversy for boosting debtor lawsuits in the first months of the pandemic. Sen. Scott has also taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from hedge fund billionaires Paul Singer and from Daniel Loeb, who is known for his “nasty” business tactics.

Sen. Scott, who has opposed reining in predatory loan interest rates, has a long history of opposing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Sen. Scott has claimed the Bureau “lacks transparency” and has signed his name to several bills to undermine the CFPB, including one to strike down a rule making it easier for harmed consumers to sue abusive companies, one to make the Bureau “prioritize” business interests, and another to hobble the CFPB’s independence.

Sen. Scott has repeatedly worked to deregulate the financial industry.

This includes cosponsoring a major deregulatory bill that successfully weakened post-2008 financial crisis reforms and voting for Trump administration rules that allowed predatory lenders to avoid state interest rate caps, forcing consumers into cycles of debt.

Sen. Scott was the “key” Republican sponsor of the Opportunity Zone tax break included in Trump’s 2017 tax overhaul, working closely with Trump’s family to advance the policy. This tax break was widely criticized for giving “massive tax benefits to wealthy investors” while failing to help struggling communities.

Sen. Scott would go on to take hundreds of thousands of dollars from wealthy donors who stood to benefit from the Opportunity Zone break, including multiple NFL franchise owners and the chairman of the New Balance shoe company.

Sen. Scott has also taken tens of thousands of dollars from Boeing after pushing a major tax break for the company while he was Charleston County Council chairman.

He later introduced legislation to protect the company from labor regulators while in Congress. 

Scott, a real estate investor with a 50% interest in a residential real estate company in South Carolina, has received over $90,000 from major residential real estate industry PACs.