GOP 2024 contenders enter Iowa, wary of Trump’s long shadow – By Associated Press (Trib Live) / Mar 26 2021
DES MOINES, Iowa — Ambitious Republicans are starting to make moves in Iowa, long a proving ground for future presidents. Their first step is finding out whether activists there have gotten over the last one.
Former President Donald Trump remains a hulking presence in Iowa, where he won twice by healthy margins. He’s hinted he’ll run again, and his false claims that the last election was stolen still dominate some Republican circles.
But that doesn’t mean Trump has frozen the field of potential 2024 Republican presidential candidates. Several GOP politicians have plans for trips to Iowa and other early nominating states this spring. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is the first since the election to gauge Iowans’ interest in person this week.
Party activists say these early arrivals are welcome, despite Trump’s enduring popularity and the pervasive belief he was somehow wronged in his 2020 defeat. But interviews with GOP county party leaders and local activists around the state expose the difference between their declared love for Trump and hope he runs again
