Former vice president Mike Pence appears to be inching toward a 2024 White House announcement.
New reports indicate Pence plans to travel back to Iowa this week, adding to the rumors he’s planning to mount his own White House campaign shortly.
The trip back to Iowa, the state that leads off the Republican Party’s presidential nominating calendar comes after Pence has repeatedly said he’ll decide in the spring whether to launch a 2024 White House run, joining a field of GOP contenders that already includes his one-time running mate – former President Donald Trump.
Fox News first reported the upcoming trip:
Pence will start his day in the Hawkeye State in Urbandale, just outside of Des Moines, where he’ll give remarks at a breakfast hosted by the Westside Conservative Club. The group usually holds two breakfasts a month but added a third in March for the former vice president’s visit.
Pence will then take part in a fireside chat at a luncheon in Cedar Rapids, which will also include a book signing for his memoir “So Help Me God.” The former vice president will conclude his day in Iowa by delivering remarks in Coralville at the Johnson County Republicans Reagan dinner.
The stop in Iowa will be Pence’s second in a month and his eighth since the end of the Trump administration in January 2021.
While momentum surrounding Pence’s potential campaign seems to be building in an interview earlier this month Pence said Republican voters’ familiarity with his story affords him some breathing room as he makes his 2024 decision
“I think the advantage that we have is I think the American people know the Pences,” the former vice president said. “By and large they know our story and our career, and some are getting to know it better every day. So, we think we have time to be discerning, to be reflective, to listen.”
“I do believe that different times call for different leadership. I think we’ll have better choices come 2024,” Pence said in a Fox News Digital interview earlier this month, when asked about his former running mate. “I’m confident that Republican primary voters are going to choose well, that are going to choose a standard-bearer that will be able to lead us to victory in 2024.”
