Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is heading back to Iowa this summer, sparking further buzz over a potential run for the White House in 2024.
According to the Iowa-based social conservative group The FAMiLY Leader, Biden will speak at the organization’s 10th annual leadership summit in Des Moines on July 16, reports Fox News.
This will be Pompeo’s second trip this year to Iowa, whose caucuses begin the presidential nominating process.
Pompeo, now a Fox News contributor, headlined an event by the Westside Conservative Club in Urbandale, Iowa, in March. His stop then was the first made in Iowa by any potential GOP 2024 candidate.
“We are grateful to once again welcome nationally prominent voices and leaders to Iowa for the FAMiLY Leadership Summit,” Bob Vander Plaats, the organization’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “From pastors, authors, and entertainers, to thought leaders and elected officials, the Summit’s star-studded lineups through the years are a recognition of the prominence Iowa plays in the national discussion and the unique stage the Summit provides to explore how faith impacts every sphere of life.”
Pompeo, a former Kansas congressman, was CIA director under former President Donald Trump before he became Secretary of State. He has not confirmed if he will run for the White House.
Meanwhile, Pompeo is not the only potential 2024 candidate who is scheduled to speak at the FAMiLY summit, as South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem will be another headliner.
Noem is running for reelection as governor next year and has said she’s not interested in running for president, but some of her latest actions have caused discussion about her potential national ambitions.
She has recently launched the Noem Victory Fund, a federal PAC that will allow her to raise and spend money outside South Dakota.
Former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, a former governor of South Carolina, is also heading to Iowa in June, where she will give the keynote at the Iowa Republican Party’s annual Lincoln Dinner.
Haley’s Stand for America PAC has endorsed Iowa GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds’ reelection bid.
Former Vice President Mike Pence is also sparking some speculation with his trip to New Hampshire this week, where he will headline the Hillsborough County GOP’s annual Lincoln Reagan awards and fundraising dinner Thursday. This will mark the first visit by a potential 2024 GOP presidential candidate to New Hampshire, which holds the first presidential primary.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., was also featured this past week in a New Hampshire GOP virtual fundraiser, marking the second time he has headlined a virtual event in the state. He chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee and was the headliner for a GOP gathering and fundraiser at the beginning of April in Iowa.
Two other potential contenders, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., will be in Nevada, another early-voting state, who are both viewed as potential 2024 Republican White House contenders, are headed in August to Nevada, the state that holds the fourth contest in the GOP presidential nominating calendar.
Meanwhile, a source close to Trump told Fox News that he’ll likely hold the first of his campaign rallies in Ohio.
He says he’s still mulling a campaign to return to the White House, but recently announced rallies in Florida, Ohio, and North Carolina.
The also said Trump is “looking at some fourth of July plans but they’re still in the works right now. …We’ve scouted some venues. We’ve been to a couple of different states to look at opportunities. It’s going to be very, very hard to top what we did last year for the fourth of July, going to Mt. Rushmore with South Dakota Gov. Noem. That iconic background is going to be really hard to beat, but we’re going to try.”
