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A2 u.s. news
Tuesday 21 February 2023

Trump absent as Iowa 2024 GOP caucus train begins to roll

By THOMAS BEAUMONT After a slow start, Republi- by healthy margins, as the
Associated Press can presidential prospects Republican presidential
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) are streaming into the nominee in the 2016 and
— Nikki Haley is swinging leadoff presidential caucus 2020 elections.
through Iowa this week state. Notably absent from “It is genuinely impossible
fresh off announcing her the lineup, at least for now, for this guy to try to man-
presidential campaign. Her is former President Donald age these expectations,”
fellow South Carolinian Re- Trump. said Luke Martz, a veteran
publican, Sen. Tim Scott, Few of the White House Iowa Republican strategist
will also be here as he de- hopefuls face the lofty ex- who helped lead Mitt Rom-
cides his political future. pectations in Iowa that ney’s 2012 Iowa caucus
And former Vice President Trump does. He finished a campaign. “They are enor-
Mike Pence was just in the competitive second to de- mous. They are self-made.
state courting influential vout social conservative I don’t see how anyone
evangelical Christian activ- Ted Cruz in 2016, and went who is saying ‘I’m the guy’
ists. on to carry the state twice, can come in and even get President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally at
the Knapp Center on the campus of Drake University, Jan. 30,
2020, in Des Moines, Iowa.
Associated Press
even a second-place fin- Hampshire and South Car-
ish.” olina stops. “Because Iowa
To be sure, Trump is making is first in the nation, doesn’t
moves in Iowa. On Mon- everybody come here
day, his team announced first?”
it had named a state cam- Meanwhile, others are
paign director, Marshall making inroads.
Moreau, who managed Though Pence is not yet
the 2022 campaign of Re- a candidate, his advo-
publican attorney general cacy group Advancing
candidate Brenna Bird. Bird American Values last week
defeated Democrat Tom launched a campaign
Miller, who had been the to organize opposition to
longest-serving attorney school policies like one in
general in the country, first an eastern Iowa district that
elected in 1978. has become a flashpoint
Trump has maintained an among conservatives.
Iowa political presence, Pence was in Cedar Rap-
with a national campaign ids on Wednesday rallying
team member, Alex Lat- opponents of a policy by
cham, based in the state. the nearby Linn-Mar Com-
But Trump held a kickoff ral- munity School District that’s
ly on Jan. 28 in South Caro- at issue in a federal lawsuit.
lina, where his 2016 primary The school board last year
victory sealed his status as enacted a measure allow-
GOP frontrunner. And he ing transgender students to
squeezed in a speaking request a gender support
spot earlier that day at the plan to begin socially tran-
annual state GOP meeting sitioning at school without
in New Hampshire, where the permission of their par-
he also won the first-in-the- ents.
nation primary seven years The issue, an early focus of
ago. 2024 Republican presiden-
Though the caucuses re- tial prospects, is particu-
main nearly a year off, they larly contentious among
remain the first event on the Christian conservatives,
calendar, and some Iowa with whom Pence routinely
GOP activists have taken says he identifies. And at
notice of Trump’s absence. Wednesday’s event at a
“I found that quite interest- pizza restaurant — it had
ing,” Gloria Mazza, chair- the feel of an early caucus
woman of the Polk County campaign stop — Pence il-
GOP, said of Trump’s New lustrated its traction.q