Donald Trump may not be the only one with an eye on 2024.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is going to Iowa next week to defend conservatives.
The trip of Pompeo, the former Kansas congressman who served as CIA director in the Trump administration before becoming America’s top diplomat, will be the first in-person visit by a potential Republican Party with hopes of 2024 at the White House to a of the first voting states in the presidential nomination calendar.
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Pompeo, who was not shy during Fox News’s recent interviews about provoking his possible national aspirations, seemed to fan the flames a little more on Friday, tweeting: “1,327 days”
Pompeo’s trip includes a stop at the Westside Conservative Club in Urbandale on Friday morning.
Senators Rick Scott of Florida and Tim Scott of South Carolina, who may also have national aspirations, will go to Iowa next month to head state Republican Party events.
Rick Scott, who is traveling to Hawkeye State in his role as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee – which is the reelection arm of the Senate Republicans – will be in Cedar Rapids on April 1 for an event organized by the Iowa GOP. Tim Scott will speak at another Iowa GOP meeting in Davenport on April 15.
While common sense is that Trump’s flirtations with another White House candidacy in 2024 may be freezing the field a bit, it appears that his figurative presence is not preventing other potential candidates from taking their first steps.
Eight years ago, when the Republican Party was in the same position to be the out-of-power party in the White House, there were 42 visits by potential 2016 Republican candidates to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina – the first three states to hold disputes in the calendar of GOP appointments. But only four of those trips took place during the first four months of 2013.
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“I was probably more interested in our regional events than in the two previous presidential cycles for which I was president,” Jeff Kaufmann, longtime Republican Party president, told Fox News.
“I would say there is a lot more interest here than meets the eye,” said Kaufmann, provoking that there could be many more visits from potential candidates for 2,024 this year. “I’m not playing with you. Stay tuned.”
An invitation from the Iowa Republican Party to an event with the Sens. Tim Scott and Joni Ernst in Davenport, Iowa on April 15, 2021
The Kaufmann Granite State counterpart, the chairman of the New Hampshire Republican State Committee, Steve Stepanek, told Fox News that “at this point, people are putting their hands out”
A week after being in Iowa, Pompeo is expected to lead a virtual fundraiser for the New Hampshire Republican Party. And Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, another politician on the long list of Republican candidates in 2024, spoke remotely last month at the state party’s virtual winter meeting.
Stepanek points to the timetable – and the coronavirus pandemic – for the lack of initial visits in person so far.
“It’s too early and I think a lot of people are blocked because of the COVID blocks,” Stepanek told Fox News.
Asked whether Trump’s possible 2024 presidential candidacy is also freezing the first state visits so far by other White House candidates, he said it is too early to say. “If that is so in a year, then I would say it is Trump,” added Stepanek, who chaired Trump’s 2016 campaign in New Hampshire.
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Trump predicted during a speech last month at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) that in 2024 “a Republican president will make a triumphant return to the White House.” And triggering a potential run, he asked, “I wonder who it will be?”
Later in his speech, Trump once again falsely claimed that he won last November’s presidential election and caused an explosion of applause and cheers among the crowd in Orlando, Florida, when he said of the Democrats, “who knows … I might even decide beat them a third time. “
Last week, in an interview on “Fox News Primetime”, the former president once again sparked a potential campaign for 2024 and hinted that “we will make our decision after” the midterm elections.
Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Sunday, February 28, 2021, in Orlando, Florida (AP Photo / John Raoux)
((AP Photo / John Raoux))
Trump remains the dominant force in the Republican Party and the most popular figure among Republican voters. The first data clearly shows that if the race for the nomination were carried out today, the former president would be the big favorite.
“I think the elephant in the room is obviously Donald Trump,” veteran Republican Party researcher Neil Newhouse recently told Fox News. “If the election were held today and he wants the nomination, he would be the favorite.”
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Republican strategist and veteran of the Republican Party presidential campaign, Alex Conant, told Fox News that “no one wants to be the first candidate to challenge Trump in 2024. If it were really an open contest, you would see many potential candidates making some initial moves aggressive, going to Iowa, New Hampshire. “
“Potential candidates for 2024 don’t want to talk about Donald Trump. They want to talk about themselves,” he said. “But as long as he is making noise about running again, the race will revolve around him. And these candidates will be less inclined to make the state trip early because everything will be in the shadow of Trump running or not running again.”
Longtime Republican Party consultant David Carney agreed that with the president considering an offer to return to the White House, it is a very different scenario than the fields open for the Republican Party’s presidential nominations in 2008, 2012 and 2016 , respectively.
But Carney, a veteran of Republican presidential campaigns for three decades, said: “I don’t think any serious candidate would be frightened because it’s four years. Nobody knows what will really happen to the president. I don’t see it’s having much of an effect now.”
Although the initial stops have so far been limited, there is a lot of action going on behind the scenes.
“Many potential candidates for 2024 are winning friends in the ultra-activist category. They are not creating waves, they are not making headlines, they are just talking on the phone and communicating, getting things done,” New Hampshire Institute said Executive Policy Director Neil Levesque. “There is not much activity specifically on the ground that voters can engage in.”
The “Politics and Eggs” lecture series has long been a mandatory stop for aspiring White House in New Hampshire, and Levesque said he is “getting questions about the kind of platform we have. What kind of opportunities, all of us funny.”
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“I hoped that post-COVID, once we can do face-to-face events, things will really start to heat up,” he added.
What about Kaufmann’s proposal for potential Republican Party candidates for 2024? “Come to Iowa, always come, and my God, I’m going to find a crowd for you to talk to.”