It featured the appearance of a candidate who would try to find his way forward in a crowded primary school for a party that was still fascinated by Trump. They included a Thursday night stop at a bar with a West Iowa Republican, a Friday morning breakfast in the Des Moines suburban area, and a performance by a young Republican group and a fundraiser for a carrier, her all early efforts to build local connections in all important states.
“We’re in Iowa after all – the first primary school in the country,” Pompeo said Friday, making clear his 2024 ambitions while also making a small gaffe: Iowa is a ‘keep caucuses; New Hampshire is proud to maintain its first primary school.
Florida Sen. Rick Scott will visit Iowa next week, followed by South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott will be in the state later in April. Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton has already visited New Hampshire, and Pompeo will headline a significant fundraiser for a state legislation candidate there next week – an event organized by Matt Mowers, candidate for the 2020 Republican conference.
GOP staff and officials in Iowa, New Hampshire and other states said they have already heard from other potential candidates, and plan to schedule more visits soon.
Going above all else is Trump, who has suggestions at a possible 2024 bid – including at a Conservative Political Action Conference in late February, in the his first speech since leaving office – and a popular party foundation effectively freezes the field and shuts another Republican into a shadow primary if Trump doesn’t run .
Trump’s presence will also create another visit on the road to 2024, as well as Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina: Mar-A-Lago, where the former president is now stay. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem recently visited Trump there; The request of former South Carolina governor and United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley was visited.
Pompeo denied reporters questions Friday morning as to whether he has spoken to Trump about the 2024 race.
Answering questions from voters
The developing shadow primary in the event of Trump not running, still years from taking full form, is dominated by the protests Trump filed at an early stage.
Over breakfast at the Machine Shed in Urbandale, a crowded, almost entirely white and almost completely uninhabited crowd of more than 100 Pompeos with questions about election administration and email ballots, tech censorship, lawyer review US John Durham about the origins of the Russian Study, media bias and more.
“You can see what corporations are up to with the pillow case, which is a stand-in, so you know what lies ahead for all of us,” one man told Pompeo, referring to Mike Lindell, chief executive of My Pillow who has peddled the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.
“Regarding Biden: Do you think he’s a Trojan horse for the far left?” Asked another attendant.
Pompeo often opposed the more controversial claims. But he defended the effort of Republican state legislatures this year to make voting harder by changing laws around email voting and early voting, which experts say would have a disproportionate impact on minorities.
“Don’t let your racist call and walk away,” Pompeo said. “It is not racist to say that someone should have to show ID to vote. It is not racist to think that only people who are legitimate on the voting rollers should be able to vote. “
He also praised the law passed by Georgia lawmakers this week restricting voting rights as a “good one.”
There are other candidates who may have tried to carve early series: Noem and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has argued about refusing to impose tight and permanent locks in their states.
Pompeo, meanwhile, is largely adhering to foreign policy – an area where he can defend Trump ‘s legacy and defend President Joe Biden’ s policies without stepping on Trump ‘s toes or going against the former president.
He would often criticize and blame the “Chinese Community Party.” Moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem was a hit line. And the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce tensions with North Korea were a punch line.
“I have now spent more time with the North Korean leader than any other American, including Dennis Rodman. He was a former registrar, and I flew past him,” he said.
On foreign policy, Pompeo represents himself both as a conservative statesman and as a strong defender of the Trump administration. In this week’s view at the Texas Institute of Public Policy, he sought to melt his more traditional Republican views on foreign policy with the more isolated tendencies of the former president.
“We are the ones in charge of economic security, we are the diplomatic capability and power, and of course, we also have unparalleled military capability,” Pompeo said. “We can’t ignore it, but we have to be severely constrained when we think about using this power.”
He drew on his close relationship with Trump to reveal a common view of America’s use of power and influence in the world.
“If we think about how the President and I, who sent America first, did, we were unresolved,” Pompeo said, “The nations will respect him.”
Earlier in the week, Pompeo also began developing a critique of Biden’s approach, advising as a friendly warning to the Democratic administration not to “sacrifice American values at the crossroads of climate change or radical awakening or whatever which would be “the mantra from the left of their party.”