Texas Gov. Rick Perry will attend a GOP fundraiser event in Waterloo, Iowa this Sunday, the day after the Ames Straw poll.
Mark Miner, one of Perry’s spokesmen, confirmed the event to the Des Moines Register.
Among Republicans, Waterloo is most important to Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., who was born in the town and returned there to launch her presidential bid.
Perry’s Waterloo-stop follows a Saturday trip to South Carolina, where he is expected to announce, if not officially launch, his own presidential campaign, and thus steal Bachmann’s thunder from that day’s Ames Straw Poll, which she has a strong chance of winning.
A rising star in the GOP primaries, Perry, like Bachmann, has strong appeal among evangelical Christians. The Waterloo trip might well begin his attempt to send Bachmann into eclipse among social conservatives.
