In Iowa, Mike Pompeo says he’ll decide on presidential run after midterms

WAUKEE — Campaigning alongside a slate of Iowa Republicans on Friday on a Dallas County farm, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took a long view of the 2022 election.

He told a crowd of about 60 Republicans the election was an opportunity to “get another good 250 years here in America because of people like you,” pointing to candidates in Iowa like Republican state Sen. Zach Nunn, running for Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, and U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley.

Pompeo, who has made frequent appearances in Iowa this year, has made clear that he’s considering throwing his name into what may be a crowded Republican primary in 2024. He told reporters after the event he was focused on the 2022 elections, but over the coming months he would decide with his family on his next steps.

“We’ll pray about this and decide whether it is our moment, it is our time, to make the case to the American people,” he said. “And obviously if you do that, you come to great places like this to make the case first.”

Iowa’s Republican Party in 2024 will host the first-in-the-nation caucuses, a fact that has drawn other potential contenders like former Vice President Mike Pence and U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas to the state. Former President Donald Trump, who has hinted he plans to run again in 2024, held a rally in Des Moines last year.

Pompeo said other candidates in the field would not affect his decision to run.

“It doesn’t make a darn who else runs,” he said. “Everybody gets to make their own choice. That’s what’s so great about America.”

Pompeo told the crowd Friday he thinks the Nov. 8 election will be analogous to the 2010 midterm elections, when Republicans won 63 seats in the U.S. House and seven Senate seats.

Analysts expect Republicans to win control of the House this year, and Democrats are slightly favored by some to keep control of the Senate.

“The truth is, I am confident that in two weeks, we are going to upend America, we are going to reclaim this country, and good people all across America are going to win,” he said.

Other speakers at the “get out the vote” event included Nunn, attorney general candidate Brenna Bird, Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig and Secretary of State Paul Pate.

Nunn, who is challenging Democratic incumbent Cindy Axne in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, blamed Democrats for high gas prices and inflation, saying leadership in Congress needs to change.

In contrast, he said he would take the agenda passed by the Republican-led Legislature — like tax cuts and requiring schools to offer in-person instruction a year into the pandemic — to Washington.

“We have a playbook here in Iowa that can make it right,” he said. “I’m not just asking for your support for me, I’m asking for your support up and down the ballot.”

In a statement, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesperson Matt Corridoni criticized Pompeo and Nunn for supporting restrictions on abortion.

"Neither Pompeo nor Nunn trust Iowa women to make their own health care decisions, and birds of a feather will campaign together,” he said.