CEDAR RAPIDS — U.S. Sen. Tim Scott known as on Republicans to be the “get together of fogeys” at a sold-out Cedar Rapids occasion Thursday, praising Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ push to develop “college alternative” choices within the state.

Scott, a Republican from South Carolina, stated Reynolds’ high-profile response to Democratic President Joe Biden’s March 1 State of the Union deal with “hit the ball out of the park by specializing in the way forward for this nation.”

“She’s not speaking in election cycles,” Scott stated. “Kim Reynolds is speaking in generations. She’s speaking about reworking our nation beginning right here with high quality training in each single ZIP code,” Scott stated. “I really like that. I am preventing for a similar factor.”

Scott’s remarks adopted per week through which Reynolds flexed her political clout by campaigning in opposition to 4 incumbent Republican legislators who publicly opposed her plan to offer taxpayer-funded scholarships to households in search of to ship their youngsters to non-public faculties. These 4 incumbents misplaced their major bids in Tuesday’s election.

Extra:Kim Reynolds made ‘college alternative’ a problem in Tuesday’s primaries. Here is what occurred.

Like Reynolds, Scott has advocated for giving dad and mom extra say over the place their kids go to highschool, and he has launched laws in Congress to take action.

He’s among the many nationwide politicians drawing hypothesis about whether or not they have White Home ambitions in 2024. The senator has stored up an everyday presence in Iowa through the years, talking on the Christian conservative Household Management Summit in 2019, campaigning with Iowa U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst forward of her 2020 reelection bid and headlining a 2021 fundraiser for the state get together in Davenport.

“Take us on a bit journey of what you’re dreaming proper now,” Republican Occasion of Iowa Chair Jeff Kaufmann requested Scott throughout a question-and-answer session Thursday.

“President!” somebody shouted from the group.

“Of my home-owner’s affiliation, sure,” Scott responded, laughing.

He additionally turned the tables briefly on Ernst, who joined him in the course of the session.

“God bless the management you present,” he advised her. “While you’re over all of the army or the vp or the president of this nation, I look ahead to saying, ‘Sure ma’am.’”

Ernst described Scott as certainly one of her “finest buddies” within the Senate and the “embodiment of the American dream.”

“Once I was going by means of so many difficulties plenty of years in the past, it was Tim Scott that will pray with me,” she stated. “And it was Tim Scott that will stroll me by means of a few of these darkish days. … Tim clearly has such a beautiful connection to individuals when he is in public, however the best way he acts in non-public and the best way he helps his buddies heal is extraordinary.”

Scott, who’s the one Black Republican within the Senate, highlighted his biography as a approach of decrying the identification politics of the left. His grandfather, he stated, picked cotton within the Twenties and lived lengthy sufficient “to look at me pick a seat in the USA Congress.”

“One aspect needs to measure your success and your significance by how a lot melanin you’ve got in your pores and skin,” he stated. “I want to measure our success and our significance by the values we’re prepared to defend.”

Different Republicans and potential 2024 contenders have already got traveled to Iowa this 12 months, together with former Vice President Mike Pence and former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Extra, together with former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, are planning Iowa journeys later this summer season.

Nationwide Democrats are contemplating modifications to their presidential nominating calendar, doubtlessly booting Iowa from the entrance of the road. However the Republican Nationwide Committee just lately voted to cement Iowa’s first-in-the-nation standing for 2024 — a indisputable fact that drew cheers when Kaufmann famous it for the group.

“We’re dwelling free, child,” stated Iowa RNC committeeman Steve Scheffler.

Extra:Iowa Democrats suggest main modifications to caucuses in bid to stay first-in-the-nation

Wayne Render, a 73-year-old Alburnett resident who attended Thursday’s occasion, stated he hopes to see extra of Scott — and different potential Republican contenders — because the 2024 caucus cycle advances.

“He is all the way down to Earth. He is sincere. He’s what you’d need anyone to be,” Render stated of Scott.

He stated he would vote for former Republican President Donald Trump “in a heartbeat” if he ran, however he worries about whether or not Trump may enchantment to different Republicans who could have written him off.

“I’ll need to see how the sphere performs out,” he stated. “And perhaps any individual like a Scott could be a greater one to have as a candidate.”

Brianne Pfannenstiel is the chief politics reporter for the Register. Attain her at bpfann@dmreg.com or 515-284-8244. Comply with her on Twitter at @brianneDMR.