South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are scheduled to headline the Conservative Political Action Conference in late February, marking the unofficial kickoff of the 2024 presidential campaign for aspiring Republicans.
This year’s CPAC is ostensibly the first major conservative gathering as the Republican Party looks beyond former President Donald Trump, who left office mired in controversy surrounding the Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol by his grassroots supporters.
But Trump is leaving open the possibility that he might seek the White House again in 2024 and is poised to remain a dominating force in GOP politics for the foreseeable future, with top Republicans attempting to bury the hatchet with the former president in recent days.
These dynamics could make for an intriguing CPAC when the event kicks off Feb. 25 in Orlando, which happens to be just a short plane ride from Palm Beach, Florida, where Trump has retired to and set up his political operation since exiting Washington last week.
“This is nothing like 2008; it’s a completely different situation,” CPAC head Matt Schlapp said Friday, referring to the last presidential election in which Republicans lost control of the White House. “I know folks are discouraged, but we’re in so much better shape than we were [12] years ago.”
Schlapp said the focus of CPAC would naturally be different than it has been since 2016. During the Trump era, there was special emphasis on the 45th president’s agenda, with guest speakers from his administration dominating the festivities. Last year, the topics covered reflected the major themes of the 2020 election. “Now, we have the Biden presidency,” he said.
In recent years, CPAC was held in National Harbor, Maryland, just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. Concern about limits on gathering implemented to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus forced the gathering to relocate to Florida, where regulations are less onerous. Schlapp, a Trump ally and whose wife, Mercedes Schlapp, worked for the then-president, has insisted amid some speculation that CPAC is financially and organizationally as healthy as ever.
He said adhering to public health guidelines “does limit the tickets you can sell and also limits the activities — there won’t be events with people packed shoulder-to-shoulder.” But Schlapp said he expects the tickets that are available to be sold out by the end of the next week. (The Washington Examiner is a past CPAC media partner.)
Confirmed speakers so far include House Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana; Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana, chairman of the Republican Study Committee, a caucus of House conservatives; Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina; former Ambassador Richard Grenell; former acting attorney general under Trump, Matthew Whitaker, plus various conservative pundits and media figures.
But Noem, a top surrogate for Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign; and Pompeo, a trusted Trump Cabinet member who this week joined the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, are likely to be the biggest draws. More potential 2024 contenders could be announced as CPAC speakers in the weeks ahead.
