Sen. Tim Scott Gets Engaged to Girlfriend After Beach Proposal

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) endorses Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald J. Trump during a campaign event in Concord, N.H., on Jan. 19, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) is officially off the market after popping the question to his girlfriend on the beach over the weekend.

Mr. Scott, 58, who has never been married, got down on one knee and proposed to his girlfriend, Mindy Noce, during a sunset walk along the beach in South Carolina.

“She said YES,” the one-time presidential candidate announced in a social media post on X on Sunday night. “Mindy, thank you for making me the luckiest man in the world. ‘He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the Lord’ – Proverbs 18:22.”

Mr. Scott’s engagement took place the day after he endorsed former President Donald Trump’s campaign in New Hampshire on Friday.

“We need a president who sees Americans as one American family,” he said. “And that’s why I came to the very warm state of New Hampshire to endorse the next president of the United States, President Donald Trump.”

During his own presidential campaign, Mr. Scott mentioned that he was dating a Christian woman whose values aligned with his. He later told The Washington Post that he could not imagine “dragging her onto the campaign trail unless I have the intention of marrying her.”

“I hope that happens, to be honest with you,” he added.

Mr. Scott said he began dating Ms. Noce, an interior designer and mother of three, about a year ago after being introduced to each other at church.

“My joke is as soon as I saw her picture, I figured it out,” the senator told The Washington Post. “But the truth is, about two weeks into it, I knew there was something very different about her faith. In our first conversation that went about an hour and a half or two, we ended up deciding to do a Bible study together.”

Arranging the Proposal

In November, the public finally got a glimpse of Ms. Noce when Mr. Scott brought her onstage to pose for a photo following the third GOP presidential debate in Miami, multiple media outlets reported.

Then, a couple of weeks before Christmas, Mr. Scott informed Ms. Noce’s parents of his intentions to marry their daughter and asked for their blessing. Following their approval, he began planning the proposal.

He said he considered proposing after a game of pickleball, a game the couple enjoys together, but one of his friends dissuaded him from that idea. He eventually chose to propose on the beach on Kiawah Island.

“I will say, without question, Saturday was the day that I isolated for the last several weeks,” Mr. Scott told Trey Gowdy during an interview on Fox News on Sunday night. “As a matter of fact, when the former president called and said, ‘I really want you to endorse me, and I’d love for you to be somewhere Saturday,‘ I said, ’Off the table, I’ve got something more important to do on Saturday.'”

He went on to say that choosing Ms. Noce as his future wife is one of the most important decisions he has ever made.

“It’s the second most important decision you will make in a lifetime—making Jesus Christ the Lord of my life was No. 1, and the woman I’m going to marry, No. 2. And so, going to the beach and getting on the knee and asking Mindy to marry me was so much more important than anything else, and I wanted to make sure that that sacred day would not be disturbed by anything political.”

Ms. Noce was reportedly seen wearing an engagement ring at a church in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, on Sunday.

Although a date has not been announced, the couple reportedly plans to wed later this year.