Former presidential candidate Sen. Tim Scott received a ringing endorsement from one particular South Carolina voter over the weekend.
Scott, a lifelong bachelor, popped the question Saturday night to his girlfriend, Mindy Noce, whom he publicly revealed amid a slew of media curiosity over his dating life during his brief run for president last year.
Scott, who reps the Palmetto State, announced his engagement to Noce on Sunday in a short and sweet social media post that showed the moment he got down on one knee at a Kiawah Island beach in South Carolina to ask the interior designer to marry him.
“She said YES,” Scott tweeted. “Mindy, thank you for making me the luckiest man in the world.”
He also cited Proverbs 18:22 in the Bible: “He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the Lord.”
Scott, 58, slipped an engagement ring on Noce’s finger a day after he officially endorsed Donald Trump for president.
The only black Republican in the US Senate had his own presidential ambitions, but dropped out of the race in November after he didn’t gain much traction with voters.
Scott debuted Noce as his girlfriend on stage at the third GOP presidential debate in Miami as curiosity — and apprehension among donors — over his love life grew.
Noce is a Charleston-based design and renovation consultant and mom of three kids. The two met about a year ago after being introduced at church and connecting over Bible study, Scott told the Washington Post.
“My joke is as soon as I saw her picture, I figured it out. But the truth is about two weeks into it, I knew there was something very different about her and her faith,” he told the newspaper.
“In our first conversation that went about an hour and a half or two, we ended up deciding to do a Bible study together.”
The lawmaker reportedly received permission to propose from Noce’s parents before Christmas.
As he tried to figure out his proposal plans, his idea of popping the question after a game of pickleball — a sport the two bond over — was quickly rejected by one of his friends, according to the outlet.
Noce, who was previously married, was sporting her new engagement ring when she attended church Sunday morning, Scott said.
“I’ve been very patient and prayerful, and I’m really excited and somewhat nervous, and I couldn’t be more thankful for having found a soul mate and someone who shares a lot of the same interests, passions and goals that I do,” he told the Washington Post.
