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Tim Scott may be new to Washington -- he has been in Congress for only eight months -- but he knows well how politics is done on his home turf of South Carolina, a key Southern primary state. The Tea Party favorite has fashioned his conservative North Charleston district into an important campaign stop for Republican White House hopefuls by inviting each of the candidates to headline an installment of his “First in the South Town Hall Series.”

Jon Huntsman and Michele Bachmann have stopped by. Nominal front-runner Rick Perry will speak to voters at Scott’s town hall on Monday morning, before he heads to an event sponsored by South Carolina Republican kingmaker Sen. Jim DeMint. Herman Cain will attend on Sept. 17. Mitt Romney has told Scott he is interested in participating, but hasn’t set a date. Tea Party and conservative groups team up with Scott to produce the forums and a couple hundred constituents typically attend.

Through the time-tested concept of a town hall, where constituents can meet face to face with the person who could be their next president, Scott is positioning himself as something of a Jim DeMint junior: someone whose endorsement presidential candidates will covet and someone who will play a significant role in choosing the next Republican nominee.

Introducing voters to candidates in this fashion plays well in South Carolina, an early-voting state where the Republican primary winner has gone on to capture the GOP presidential nomination every four years since 1980. It’s also a place where endorsements still count for something, a dynamic that flows in both directions -- helping both the endorsee and the endorser.

“South Carolina is a critical state, and all [members of the congressional delegation] would be a good get for a campaign,” says Jim Dyke, a former RNC communications director and a Republican strategist in the Palmetto State. “Add on top of that the fact that Tim Scott is a rising star within the Republican caucus in Washington D.C . . . so that’s not just making him popular in Washington but it’s also reinforcing his popularity here at home.”

Scott hasn’t named his favorite yet, saying that he’s saving his endorsement for later in the primary season “unless someone just blows me away.” That hasn’t happened so far, and he is coy about revealing his leanings. In an interview with RealClearPolitics, Scott applauded Romney as a business leader and job creator. But, he says, Perry’s entrance into the race last month in South Carolina “changed the game some.”

Regarding the Texas governor, Scott added, “I think there’s another one of those job creators in the race, and I think it’s really important for Romney to step up to the plate and be willing to go toe-to-toe with the other job creators.” Romney will be in South Carolina this weekend for DeMint’s forum.

Scott expects the candidates who attend his town halls to talk about their job creation plans and their efforts to curb government spending and stimulate the economy -- all key themes in this national election. But candidates would also be wise to master South Carolina-specific issues as well. Bachmann, for example, scored points by speaking about the contentious National Labor Relations Board lawsuit against Boeing for opening new manufacturing plants in the right-to work state of South Carolina instead of in Washington state, and accused the NLRB of siding with the unions. Scott’s own response -- a bill that would limit the NLRB’s power -- was passed out of the House education and labor committee on a party-line vote in late July.

"This is a very serious issue because South Carolina has done what other states would like to do, and that's to be a right-to-work state," Bachmann proclaimed at the North Charleston town hall. "We need to make sure states like South Carolina are rewarded, not punished.”

If Bachmann is now courting Tim Scott, she wasn’t the first prominent Republican to do so. That distinction belongs to Sarah Palin, the last nationally known conservative still deciding whether to make the 2012 presidential contest.

In some ways, Scott’s politics and profile typify the restive generation of Tea Party-affiliated Republicans who have seized center stage in the GOP. In other ways, he is anything but typical. In last year’s midterm election, Scott became the first African American Republican elected to Congress from the Deep South since Reconstruction. In a touch of historic irony, Scott, then a well-regarded state House representative, defeated the son of the legendary Strom Thurmond to win the Republican nomination. Palin endorsed Scott in this primary, which is perhaps one reason he is still neutral in his party’s presidential primary. (He insists "it’s highly unlikely we will see another big name get in this race,” though, he concedes, “there may be one or two other folks.”)

Since arriving in Washington in January, Scott has already made an impact, chosen to the elected leadership committee. But he also appears to be one of the many Tea Party thorns in House Speaker John Boehner’s side.

During the infamous debt ceiling debate this summer, Scott remained steadfast in his opposition to raising the government’s borrowing limit even at the brink of default and in spite of his party leaders’ eleventh hour begging. He and two of his fellow South Carolina freshmen -- Jeff Duncan and Mick Mulvaney -- prayed together in the chapel in the Capitol building about the vote. Even after Boehner repackaged the bill to cater to his Tea Party members, Scott voted no, asserting that it was still far short of what his constituents want.

Scott calls his relationship with Boehner a “healthy” one, but it’s clear that the speaker’s influence with him is limited. “We’re not always on the same page,” Scott says, “but the good news is we don’t have to be.”

Scott bucking his party’s leadership is classic Jim DeMint. In last year’s midterms, the senator enraged the establishment by encouraging and endorsing Republican insurgents to challenge incumbents. It cost Republicans seats in some cases while also helping to usher a wave of Tea Party lawmakers into the House.

Scott calls DeMint “a mentor” to all the GOP freshmen. “He is our top Republican, bottom line,” Scott says. “His style is an important ingredient to the equation as well.” Scott says DeMint’s forum is complementary to his town halls and notes, “It’s nice to see that Romney is coming” to the senator’s forum this weekend.

Despite his influence, DeMint insists he will not run for re-election in 2016. Speculation has already started in the Palmetto State that by then, Scott would be ready for a run at the upper chamber.

South Carolina state House Speaker Bobby Harrell says he can "totally see Tim running for an office higher than where he is today." Harrell, who worked with Scott in the state House for several years, calls the congressman a smart and charismatic conservative who has mastered the art of retail politicking. “I expect he has a big future. . . . I’m looking for big things from him.”

For his part, Scott has the good sense to dismiss such talk as premature. “Anyone who thinks they can figure out what they are going to do politically in five years is completely clueless,” he told RCP.

Scott will return to Washington next week as Congress begins its fall session. The congressman will continue to host his hometown town halls throughout the primary season, in which is now bound to play an interesting role. “If that raises my profile, good -- great -- but that’s not my goal,” he says. “Don’t take your 15 minutes too seriously.”