Meg Kinnard/Associated Press

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Wednesday pledged to sign a federal ban on abortion but again did not set down a marker for what timeline such a proposal should encompass. Haley suggested during remarks in Manchester, New Hampshire, that passing one would be highly unlikely without significantly more Republicans in Congress. The former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said "no one has been honest" about how difficult a ban could be to achieve.

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott has launched his presidential campaign. At an event in his hometown of North Charleston on Monday, Scott offered an optimistic message he hopes can contrast the two figures who have used political combativeness to dominate the early GOP primary field: former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Scott is the Senate's only Black Republican. His team acknowledges the challenge but notes that the political environment can change, that Scott won reelection by a commanding 20 points in November and that he has more money to start his campaign than any presidential candidate in history.

Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina is set to announce his bid for president. With Monday's launch, he will officially wade into a Republican primary battle already largely dominated by two commanding figures: former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

South Carolina Republicans have selected Drew McKissick as their chairman for a fourth term at a convention where some of the party's 2024 presidential hopefuls made pitches to voters in the first-in-the-South primary state. McKissick has led the party since 2017 in a state where the GOP holds all statewide-elected positions, all but one U.S. House seat and control of both legislative chambers. He defeated three challengers. Among the 2024 GOP presidential contenders, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy addressed the convention, while former President Donald Trump, Sen. Tim Scott and a super PAC supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sent videos.

Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina made it official Friday: He's running for president. The Senate's only Black Republican has filed paperwork with the Federal Election Committee declaring his intention to seek his party's nomination. His candidacy will test whether a more optimistic vision of America's future can resonate with GOP voters who have elevated partisan brawlers in recent years. The deeply religious 57-year-old former insurance broker has made his grandfather's work in the cotton fields of the Deep South a bedrock of his political identity. Scott is scheduled to make a formal announcement on Monday in his hometown of North Charleston.

Sen. Tim Scott says he's nearly ready to reveal his decision on entering the 2024 presidential race. The South Carolina Republican said Sunday during a town hall in Charleston that he would make an announcement May 22. Scott has been inching ever closer to formally entering the GOP race, where he would join other announced candidates, including former President Donald Trump and Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor who appointed Scott to the Senate. Scott has created an exploratory committee and visited other early voting states. Scott has tried to present a more positive vision for the future than many of his potential GOP rivals.

Christale Spain, a longtime party operative, has been elected as chair of South Carolina's Democratic Party. She became the first Black woman to lead the organization in what will be the Democrats' leadoff presidential voting state in 2024. With her election Saturday, and thanks to the party's recent revamp of its primary schedule, four of the five states in which Democrats will vote first next year — Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and South Carolina — now have Black women chairing their state parties.

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley says she sees a federal role in the debate over abortion rights but stopped short of endorsing a national ban on the procedure. Haley's speech at the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America headquarters Tuesday came just days after the group blasted former President Donald Trump over his contention that abortion restrictions should be left up to individual states, not the federal government.

As the 2024 Republican field begins to take shape, the potential of a faceoff between Nikki Haley and Tim Scott is putting some of their mutual supporters in the critical early voting state of South Carolina in a conundrum as they weigh which candidate to support. The two have a long history: They worked alongside each other in the state House, and then-Gov. Haley appointed Scott to a Senate seat in 2012.

Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina says conservatives are "starved for hope," as he tries to present a more positive vision for the future than his potential rivals for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. Scott told The Associated Press on Wednesday that voters he has spoken with respond favorably to his optimistic outlook for the country and his conservative ideals. He announced earlier Wednesday that he would be forming an exploratory committee for president. Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, was in Iowa on Wednesday for a day of political meetings with with evangelical pastors and Christian home-school parents, both subsets of the leadoff Iowa caucuses' influential Christian conservative base.