OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Donald Trump has hinted for months that he is likely to be campaigning for president in 2024, but he has not made a commitment and that means the field is open.
To that end there are several Republicans who have begun laying the groundwork for a potential 2024 campaign, though it is not known how many would actually do it if Trump was in it, Fox News reported.
“If you want to run for president, you need to be laying the ground work right now,” Alex Conant, a Republican strategist, said. “That doesn’t guarantee that you will be running for president but since the field is potentially very open and very competitive, it’s important to get started early.”
“While Trump has staked his claim in 2024, many candidates are still entering states like Iowa and New Hampshire in an attempt to lay down the ground game of a potential candidacy,” New Hampshire Institute of Politics executive director Neil Levesque said.
Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas traveled to Iowa this weekend, his second visit so far this summer to the state whose caucuses for half a century have kicked off the presidential nominating 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’s held the first-in-the-nation primary and votes second in the nominating calendar, and South Carolina, which holds the third contest in the GOP schedule…
So far this year there have been ten trips to Iowa by eight potential Republican presidential contenders, the exact same numbers as there were in 2013, at this early point in the wide open GOP nomination race in the 2016 cycle. And four possible GOP White House hopefuls have stopped in New Hampshire so far this year, compared to trips by five potential contenders at this point eight years ago.
“Clearly anyone who’s going to Iowa or New Hampshire right now wants to be president. By going now, they’re keeping the option to run open,” Conant said.
The candidates who have visited Iowa and other early voting states have said that they were doing so to help fellow Republicans in 2022.
But Levesque said while “early on in a president cycle candidates enter states under the guise of helping a fellow candidate from their party, the truth is they’re generally laying the ground work for a presidential campaign.”
“As long as people have been going to Iowa and New Hampshire, they’ve been denying that they’re running president. Trump makes that even more important, that you don’t seem over eager to run since nobody wants to get on his wrong side,” Conant said.
Former Vice President Mike Pence has been doing a lot of travelling this year and many suspect that he could be interested in campaigning for president and in March it was reported that he was laying the groundwork.
ABC Action News reported:
The former vice president is steadily reentering public life as he eyes a potential run for the White House in 2024.
He’s writing op-eds, delivering speeches, preparing trips to key primary states and launching an advocacy group that will likely focus on promoting the Trump administration’s accomplishments.
But Trump’s neglect in mentioning Pence during a podcast interview earlier this month signals the former vice president’s unique challenge — despite years as serving as Trump’s steadfast lieutenant, many in the Republican party now feel betrayed by Pence after he followed through with his Constitutional duty to preside over the certification of the 2020 electoral results, signifying a peaceful transfer of power.
Several prominent Republicans are already being asked about Pence and his chances of running in 2024.
“I think 2024’s a long time away and if Mike Pence runs for president he will appeal to the Republican base in a way that will make him a strong contender,” said Republican Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana, who chairs the conservative Republican Study Committee and has already endorsed a Pence 2024 run.
“If and when Mike Pence steps back up to the plate, I think he will have strong appeal among Republicans nationwide,” Banks added.
