Sen. Tim Scott misses crucial Senate vote to attend 2024 campaign event in Iowa

Sometimes it is difficult to serve in the Senate and run for president, too.

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott missed a crucial vote Thursday evening on passing the National Defense Authorization Act because he was campaigning for president in Iowa.

The Senate passed the annual defense policy bill to authorize $886 billion in national defense spending, clearing the 60-vote threshold needed to pass the bill 86 to 11.

Scott, who has been a senator since 2013, left Washington early to attend a town hall event in Ankeny, Iowa, with the Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds. During the event, Scott took questions from audience members for nearly an hour to discuss his policy positions in the 2024 race.

"As Ranking Member of the Senate Banking Committee, Senator Scott successfully fought to secure critical wins for South Carolinians and the American people in this year’s NDAA, such as his FEND Off Fentanyl Act, amendment to address the Chinese military’s influence on U.S. higher education, John Lewis Fellowship Act, $2 billion to support South Carolina military installations and the Savannah River Site and more," Scott's Communications Director Katie Vincentz wrote in a statement Friday afternoon.

Support for Scott has been slowly beginning to rise among Republican voters as he is gaining traction as a preferred second-choice candidate, according to a recent national NBC News poll. Despite an onslaught of legal troubles, former President Donald Trump is the clear frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination.

During the campaign event in Iowa, Scott took aim at fellow GOP presidential hopeful Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over the new Black history standards for Florida's public schools. DeSantis' changes to the curriculum suggest Black people who were enslaved developed skills that were applied for their personal benefit.

"There is no silver lining in slavery," Scott told reporters after the town hall in Iowa.

"What slavery was really about was separating families, about mutilating humans and even raping their wives," Scott added. "I would hope that every person in our country − and certainly running for president − would appreciate that."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Sen. Tim Scott misses NDAA Senate vote over 2024 campaign event