Mike Pompeo is leveraging relationships with House Republicans to stay front and center with GOP voters as the former secretary of state mulls a 2024 presidential bid.
On Wednesday, Pompeo joined the Republican Study Committee, a caucus of House conservatives, to promote legislation cracking down on Iran’s nuclear weapons program. The news conference, in the shadow of the United States Capitol, attracted liberal Code Pink protesters who used a bullhorn to interrupt the former secretary’s comments and advocate for President Joe Biden’s bid for Washington to rejoin the Iran deal vacated by former President Donald Trump.
Pompeo could not have scripted his trip to Capitol Hill any better.
Out of elected office and absent the platform of the State Department, the former secretary’s challenge as he positions himself for a possible presidential campaign is staying relevant to Republican primary voters and maintaining their affection. If Trump opts out of 2024, Pompeo’s competition for the nomination will feature Republican governors and senators who have spent every day capitalizing on their post to cultivate support with grassroots conservatives.
“Our approach to this is to stay in the fight,” a Pompeo adviser told the Washington Examiner. “That’s how you stay relevant, which is to stay in the fight to preserve the America First foreign policy, the America First agenda that President Trump set forward. That’s what we did today.”
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Last year, Pompeo had the opportunity to run for an open Senate seat in his home state of Kansas. Trump signed off, and the party was ready to clear the primary field for him. The former secretary would have won, providing an avenue to prove his mettle with GOP voters on key issues and guaranteeing a media spotlight, especially regular appearances on Fox News. In the 21st century, both are crucial aspects of viable presidential campaigns.
Pompeo passed it up, gambling he could establish himself as a top-tier presidential contender without the boost of a launchpad like the Senate. “In today’s world, it’s challenging to stay relevant and top-of-mind if you’re not an elected official,” a GOP strategist said. “If you’re a senator or governor, you have a ready, made 24/7 platform. If you’re not, you have to create one.”
To do that, Pompeo is working with the House GOP and other prominent Republicans on foreign policy and national security issues, his area of interest and expertise, after four years in the Trump administration, first as director of the Central Intelligence Agency, then as secretary of state. In doing so, the former secretary repeatedly makes clear that he is aiming to preserve Trump’s legacy of “America First” achievements.
But in a sign Pompeo has his political future in mind, he used remarks Wednesday during a closed-door luncheon hosted by the Republican Study Committee to elaborate on his views on immigration. Notably, Pompeo emphasized that he was speaking for himself and not reflecting the Trump administration, although the 45th president might have been pleased with the position his former Cabinet member staked out.
“I’m speaking here for myself because it may be a little bit different from where the administration was,” Pompeo said as a packed Capitol Hill Club ballroom of 54 House Republicans listened attentively during a question-and-answer session. “My view is, when we set the immigration policy, the caps that we had, we didn’t get quite right thinking about how it affected the broader national implications for that immigration policy.”
“We have for an awfully long time allowed immigration to grow at too quick a rate, and we’ve caused American workers to suffer as result,” Pompeo continued. “We have to make sure and preserve the capacity for American workers to earn a good living for their families, and we just haven’t gotten that right … We tried to deal with it with our refugee caps; it was an effort with executive orders.”
Pompeo, 57, was a House member for six years before joining the Trump administration.
During his congressional tenure, he impressed fellow Republicans with his grasp of policy and talent for incisively interrogating committee witnesses. He also established friendships. During the Republican Study Committee news conference to unveil the Maximum Pressure Act, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana bragged that he and Pompeo once worked together as members of the Energy and Commerce Committee.
House Republicans, with grassroots connections in districts all over the country, including in some critical early primary states and Super Tuesday states, could prove resourceful allies for Pompeo should he move ahead with a national campaign.
