Tim Scott’s time as the ruling class elites’ top Republican alternative to Trump is effectively over after he received this major gut punch

Tim Scott’s entrance into the 2024 Presidential Primary was celebrated by the Republican ruling class as their chance to take back the GOP from Donald Trump and working-class conservatives.

But despite having tens of millions of dollars from some of the biggest donors in Republican politics fueling his effort, the Senator has failed to gain any traction whatsoever.

And now Tim Scott’s time as the ruling class elites’ top Republican alternative to Trump is effectively over after he received this major gut punch.

Pulling the plug

According to a report from The New York Times, Trust in the Mission PAC, the primary political action committee helping bankroll Senator Tim Scott’s (R-SC) Presidential campaign, sent a memo to donors this week indicating that it will be canceling television advertisements it had reserved to promote the Senator’s candidacy this fall.

The Times reported that the PAC’s consultants ultimately made the decision to cancel “millions of dollars in television ads” after it occurred to them that the millions of dollars they’d already spent had “hardly budged” the level of support for Scott’s candidacy.

“We aren’t going to waste our money when the electorate isn’t focused or ready for a Trump alternative,” the PAC’s co-chairman Rob Collins wrote in the memo. “We have done the research. We have studied the focus groups. We have been following Tim on the trail. This electorate is locked up and money spent on mass media isn’t going to change minds until we get a lot closer to voting.”

But while the PAC is canceling what The Times reports to be upwards of $15 million in television ad spending – which establishment consultants like Collins have claimed are the only form of political advertising that moves the needle – he’s not bowing out of the race yet.

Trust in the Mission PAC will continue to fund its “grassroots door knocking, conduit fundraising, event hosting, and earned media efforts,” while redirecting some of the funds from the canceled ads to support Scott’s ground game in early Primary states.

As The Times noted, in political circles, the fact that such a move is happening when the South Carolina Senator’s support sits at just 2% in the latest RealClearPolitics national polling average is seen as the RINO establishment donor class “all but abandoning Mr. Scott.”

But unlike they’ve done in the past as their candidates of choice have proven to be duds, this time around, the Republican establishment might not be looking to simply waste tens of millions of dollars more attempting to prop up another destined-to-fail Trump alternative in a GOP Primary in which Republican voters have largely made up their minds.

Are the elites finally getting the message?

In the PAC’s memo, Collins took aim at former UN Ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who has been floated by some establishment hacks and the media as the establishment’s next Trump alternative, and other RINOs.

“No serious person thinks a moderate will win this Primary no matter how many elite insiders champion their candidacies,” Collins declared.

With the PAC’s decision to all but abandon Senator Scott, it seems as though the Republican ruling class is beginning to wake up to the reality that Republican voters have already decided that Trump will be the Republican Presidential nominee come hell or high water – at least, barring Democrats throwing him in prison and ripping his name off the ballot, of course.

They’ve seemingly reached the point where they realize that despite having endless amounts of cash at their disposal, it’s a fool’s errand to continue flushing it down the drain by using it to prop up ruling class elites no one actually likes.

But that doesn’t mean they’re giving up on their mission to defeat Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and anyone even tangentially connected to the populist conservative movement.

Conservatives should not for a second believe that the fight with the Republican establishment will be contained to the Republican Primary.

As a matter of fact, while they may very well follow through with retreating from the GOP Primary, the Republican establishment is merely going to be regrouping to team up with many of the Democrats disgruntled with Biden behind a ruling class elite-controlled third-party candidate – likely Senator Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) rumored forthcoming “No Labels” bid.

And once they reach that point in their quest to maintain control over the American people, that’s when the real fight will begin.

24/7 Politics will keep you up-to-date on any developments to this ongoing story.