Former Vice President Mike Pence and ex-South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley will join Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) as guests at the lawmaker’s annual Roast and Ride event in Des Moines, Iowa, on June 3. So will Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.
The Iowa Fairgrounds motorcycle and cooking event comes as GOP lawmakers flock to the Hawkeye State, an early battleground as the 2024 presidential race heats up. Ernst has given invites to all the declared or would-be presidential contenders.
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Haley, who was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations for nearly two years in then-President Donald Trump’s administration, joined a GOP 2024 candidate field currently led by her old boss in February. Pence, Trump’s loyal vice president for four years, is now striking out on his own, making the rounds at early voting state events even though he hasn’t yet announced a White House bid.
The biker event raises funds for Iowa’s Freedom Foundation, a Cedar Rapids-based group that advocates on behalf of veterans. Whether Pence, Haley, or other Republicans who attend hop on a motorcycle is an open question. That’s the kind of photo-op that stands a high chance of going awry.
Still, Ernst, a member of the Senate Republican leadership, suggested some riding action in announcing Pence’s attendance.
“He’s an avid Harley-Davidson rider, so I cannot WAIT for him to join us for both the morning Ride and the big rally!” Ernst wrote in a May 15 tweet about the buttoned-down former vice president, Indiana governor, and 12-year congressman. Pence is expected to soon declare for the White House, pitching himself as a “classical conservative” who would return the Republican Party to its pre-Trump roots.
Ernst, a retired military officer, has been neutral in the GOP primary. The senator, whose home state is the lead in the GOP primary process, indicated she does not plan to endorse in the primary.
Democrats, for their part, are ditching Iowa as the first voting state after more than a half-century of its caucuses kicking off the nominating calendar. At the behest of President Joe Biden’s political operation and his reelection campaign, Democrats instead are turning to South Carolina as the starting primary, with traditionally early voting New Hampshire a week later, at the same time as Nevada, and Michigan two weeks after that.
Haley returns to New Hampshire
Haley has been on a whirlwind tour of early voting states, which continues in New Hampshire with a May 24 Concord town hall. The 4 p.m. event will take place at VFW Post 1631 in Concord, the Granite State capital.
Earlier in the day is a staple of campaigning in the New Hampshire primary, the Politics and Eggs event at St. Anselm College. That’s followed later that day with a campaign barbecue hosted by former Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) and his wife, Gail Huff Brown, a former local newscaster and 2022 GOP House candidate in New Hampshire. The Browns moved to New Hampshire from Massachusetts after the 2012 elections, when the then-senator lost his reelection bid. Later, Scott Brown was in the diplomatic corps at the same time as Haley during his Trump-era stint as U.S. ambassador to New Zealand.
In between, on May 24, Haley will appear at a “Women for Nikki New Hampshire Launch” event in Bedford. It’s then on to a “Veterans for Nikki” town hall in Concord.
Like Iowa for its caucuses, New Hampshire is keeping its first-in-the-nation primary place on the Republican side, meaning it’s a popular campaign stomping ground for declared candidates running for the right to challenge President Joe Biden in 2024, which requires them to get past Trump first. In addition to Haley, that includes former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Ramaswamy, and Scott.
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The frequent New Hampshire visits implicitly put pressure on New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu to decide whether or not he’s running. Sununu would be a favorite son in his native state, where his father, John Sununu, was governor from 1983-89 before nearly three years as White House chief of staff to the late President George H.W. Bush.
Haley has had one of the heavier campaign schedules of the bunch, certainly compared to Trump, whose status as a former president and de facto party leader means he can do fewer events. The same goes for Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), who is widely considered the leading rival to Trump for the 2024 Republican nomination but has not yet jumped into the race.
