Trump’s 2024 flirtation doesn’t stop other Republicans from visiting states at early voting



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Numerous articles have been written since the 2020 presidential election – including one by this reporter – on whether former President Trump’s repeated teasing of another White House candidacy is freezing the ground in the race to the Republican nomination of 2024.

While Trump remains very popular with the GOP base, and polls at this extremely early stage of the 2024 presidential cycle indicate the former president is the overwhelming leader in the nomination contest, his immense influence does not preclude no other potential Republicans in the White House. hopes to visit states that are launching the schedule for presidential primaries and caucuses.

TRUMP AGAIN TEASES 2024 RUN, VISITING IOWA NEXT MONTH

“If you want to run for president, you have to prepare the ground now,” longtime Republican strategist Alex Conant told Fox News. “It does not guarantee that you will be running for president, but since the field is potentially very open and very competitive, it is important to start early.”

Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas visited Iowa this weekend, his second visit so far this summer to the state whose caucuses for half a century have kicked off the presidential nomination process. And former Vice President Mike Pence and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have already made stops this year in Iowa, New Hampshire – which for a century hosted the nation’s first primary and voted second in the calendar of nominations; and South Carolina, which holds the third competition in the GOP calendar.

Former President Donald Trump waves to his supporters as he leaves the stage after speaking at a rally at the Lorain County Fairgrounds on Saturday, June 26, 2021, in Wellington, Ohio.  (AP Photo / Tony Dejak)

Former President Donald Trump waves to his supporters as he leaves the stage after speaking at a rally at the Lorain County Fairgrounds on Saturday, June 26, 2021, in Wellington, Ohio. (AP Photo / Tony Dejak)

“While Trump claimed his claim in 2024, many candidates are still entering states like Iowa and New Hampshire in an attempt to pave the way for a potential candidate,” noted the executive director of the New Hampshire Institute. of Politics, Neil Levesque.

WHAT TRUMP SAID TO FOX NEWS ABOUT A WHITE HOUSE IN 2024

So far this year, there have been ten trips to Iowa by eight potential Republican presidential candidates, exactly the same numbers as in 2013, at this early stage of the GOP nomination contest in the 2016 cycle. And four possible GOP White House hopefuls have landed in New Hampshire so far this year, compared to the trips of five potential suitors at this point eight years ago.

“It’s clear that anyone who goes to Iowa or New Hampshire now wants to be president. By leaving now, they still have the option of running,” Conant, a veteran of the 2016 Florida presidential campaign, Senator Marco Rubio and former Governor of Minnesota. Tim Pawlenty’s 2012 GOP candidacy, ”said.

Even though Trump visits Iowa next month and repeatedly flirts with the launch of a 2024 presidential campaign – telling Fox News in a recent interview that “I don’t think we’ll have a choice” – Conant said most of the other possible suitors “bet Trump won’t run in the end.”

Potential candidates visiting the early voting states this year all say in unison that the trips are on behalf of their fellow Republicans who are running in the mid-term of 2022, when the GOP aims to win back majorities in the House and in the Senate.

But Levesque noted that if “at the start of a presidential cycle candidates enter states under the pretext of helping another candidate from their party, the truth is they usually set the stage for a presidential campaign.”

And with potential suitors all hoping to avoid making it sound like they’re defying Trump, focusing on their efforts to help fellow Republicans has become more essential than ever.

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“As long as people go to Iowa and New Hampshire, they deny that they are running the president. Trump makes it even more important, that you don’t seem too keen on running since nobody wants to get on his wrong side.” , pointed out Conant.

But this story expires in a little over 13 months. After the mid-term of 2022, those trips to Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada are 100% around 2024.

Pence expands team, plans return trips to key states

Pence has been among the busiest Republicans to tour the country this year, campaigning and helping to raise funds on behalf of fellow Republicans.

Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks at the annual Head of Household Leadership Summit in Des Moines, Iowa on July 16, 2021.

Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks at the annual Head of Household Leadership Summit in Des Moines, Iowa on July 16, 2021.

Fox News confirms that the former vice president is planning return trips in the coming months to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. And he recently opened a new office space in the nation’s capital for his nonprofit, Advancing American Freedom, doubled his political and political team to around 20, and added veteran Republican GOP and conservative fundraiser. John Fogarty. The news was first reported by CNN.

WHY PENCE’S NH SPEECH WAS REALLY IMPORTANT AND WHAT IT SAYS ABOUT 2024

People in Pence’s inner orbit also confirm to Fox News that the former vice president would make the decision to launch a campaign for the White House regardless of whoever might or might show up.

“If he feels called to do it,” an advisor close to Pence told Fox News, “it won’t be because of who else is in the race.”

Cotton stops in Iowa

Cotton made a stop in Iowa this weekend, his second trip to Hawkeye State this year.

The senator headlined the Pottawattamie County GOP’s Lincoln Reagan dinner on Friday and met with Iowa farmers at a panel discussion. And on Saturday, he helped kick off a hatchback event for Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, who won the election last November by just six votes and could face a tough re-election next year.

Pompeo and Christie land new roles

As Fox News first reported on Thursday, the National Republican Redistricting Trust (NRRT), in an ad shared first with Fox News, said former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Governor New Jersey’s Chris Christie will serve as the organization’s national co-chairs. The NRRT is the main GOP organization of the Republican Party to coordinate the party’s redistribution strategy and create resources for its legal defense.

Christie, a veteran of the 2016 Republican presidential primaries, told Fox News that “anyone who thinks about 2024 should spend their time helping people in 2022 because our party will not be in the best position to elect a president unless and until. that we get at least one. Congress house back. “

GOP REDISTRICTING GROUP APPOINTS POMPEO, CHRISTIE, AS NATIONAL CO-CHAIRS

And he said the GOP winning the White House in 2024 is “a lot easier if you’re on a winning streak. If we take over the House of Representatives, which I’m convinced if this process goes well, we will – then it’s a lot easier to set an agenda and get this Republican house to start talking about the things Republicans would do if we gave them the White House and the Senate back. ”

Pompeo, a Fox News contributor, pointed out that “if we have the House and the Senate, then it will be a platform to make sure our message can get through and you can see the difference between the two sides. And I have no doubts that this will prepare 2024 very well for us. “

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