Tim Scott touts Iowa school vouchers, says 'there's no silver lining to slavery'

Kim Reynolds isn't endorsing anyone in the crowded Republican race for president, but she left little doubt for a crowd of caucus voters Thursday in Ankeny: she really likes Tim Scott.

The Iowa governor and the South Carolina senator have a shared passion for education policy and school choice initiatives, and at a packed town hall at Ankeny's The District, Reynolds, fresh from the RAGBRAI trail, took the microphone first to introduce Scott and tout his work on the topic.

Scott, when he got the mic, described Reynolds' exuberance during a previous conversation when she told him about the school choice law passed this year by the Iowa legislature, and said she's been texting him updates as the number of families to sign up for state education vouchers has surpassed expectations.

"A $7,500 or so scholarship per student is going to produce for generations Iowans who are equipped with the most important tool to transform their lives, and the state, because of a governor they may never meet," Scott said.

Reynolds said Scott has "a huge heart for our country" and praised his consistent message of optimism.

"I can tell all of you that every time I leave an event that Tim spoke at, I leave feeling more hopeful about our country and the opportunities that are ahead of us," she said.

The show of rapport comes two weeks after Donald Trump, the frontrunner in the race, harshly criticized Reynolds for her neutrality in the campaign, a public breach that led a number of Iowa Republicans to defend Reynolds or criticize the former president.

Tim Scott: 'There's no silver lining to slavery'

Scott also weighed in on a controversy dogging Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose Florida state government recently approved a curriculum requiring students to learn that enslaved people “developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”

"There's no silver lining to slavery," Scott said when asked about the dispute.

"What slavery was really about (was) separating families, about mutilating humans and even raping their wives. It was just devastating. So, I would hope that every person in our country, and certainly running for president, would appreciate that."

Tim Scott predicts creating 10 million jobs if elected

Scott touts his record on school choice at most campaign events, and especially so Thursday to lavish praise in return on Reynolds, saying there is "no better" governor in the nation on school choice.

On the southern border, another common refrain for Scott, he said he proposes to reverse the Internal Revenue Service's recent 10-year $80 billion budget boost and spend half that money on new hiring and higher pay for border patrol agents.

While he did not explicitly threaten military action against Mexican drug cartels, as several other candidates have, he told attendees the cartels "must cease to exist" and promised to use "every asset, every arrow in the quiver" against the transnational drug organizations.

On the economy, Scott accused President Biden's administration of fostering socialism, saying it was "growing in the regulatory state, growing in our tax system," and threatening to consume facets of American life through regulatory overreach.

If elected, Scott said, he promised to focus his attention on creating "10 million new jobs," including 3 million in the energy sector, 2 million "through innovation," and 4 to 5 million in high-tech manufacturing.

Asked about biofuel tax credits, Scott said he broadly supports efforts to produce more energy in America and import less from abroad, but said he would want to learn more about specific tax programs before saying which should stay and which should be changed or expanded.

One program he knows he does not support, he said, is the tax rebate currently offered to buyers of electric vehicles.

Tim Scott trails Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis in polling

Scott, who in recent polling has crept up to 11% behind Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, as usual said little directly about his fellow contenders for the Republican nomination.

He did promise attendees, as he has at past events, that he plans a clean sweep to remove all political appointees in the FBI and Department of Justice, which shortly before Thursday's event announced several new charges against Trump related to his alleged retention of classified documents after leaving the presidency.

Scott is in Iowa in advance of Friday's Lincoln Dinner, an Iowa Republican tradition that will see more than a dozen presidential candidates looking for support in the first-in-the-nation caucus state.

Scott has also announced plans to be at the Iowa State Fair in August, where he will reunite with Reynolds as part of a series of "fair-side chats" the governor will be holding with candidates.

William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com, 715-573-8166 or on Twitter at @DMRMorris.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Tim Scott touts Iowa school choice, says 'no silver lining to slavery'