Tim Scott’s standing on the rise among GOP voters, poll finds

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott is getting the attention of Republican primary voters.

He gets support from just 3% of Republicans as their first choice in the GOP presidential primary, according to the latest national NBC News poll. But that’s just part of the picture: The number of GOP voters who see Scott as their second-choice candidate has risen sharply — more than any other Republican candidate polled by NBC News from April to June.

In June, 12% of those polled said the same, a 9-point increase over the 3% who said so in April.

Scott is still trailing four other candidates — former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence and former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley — among voters selecting their first choice candidate in a Republican primary. His 3% first-choice number is the same as it was in April.

But beyond Scott’s position on the GOP primary ballot, the South Carolina senator enjoys one of the best favorable-unfavorable ratings among Republican primary voters, according to the poll.

Forty-six percent of GOP primary voters view him positively, versus just six percent who see him in a negative light. That net-positive rating (+36) is behind only DeSantis (+43) and Trump (+42) in the GOP field.

But there are still plenty of Republican primary voters unfamiliar with Scott.

Thirty-four percent of GOP voters still do not know enough about him to say whether they have a positive of negative image of him.

Only Haley has a higher “do not know enough” rating among Republican primary voters of GOP candidates.

Scott’s rising personal numbers come as his political operation is spending to get the word out to voters.

His campaign has spent $2.4 million on TV ads so far this year, while the super PAC backing him — Trust in the Mission PAC — has already spent $2 million so far this year.

Scott’s campaign has also already booked over $3 million worth of ad time in the future, more than any other candidate.

Other GOP candidates polling below Trump and DeSantis, like Haley and Pence, haven’t come close to Scott in spending.