Pence set to return to Iowa as former VP appears to move closer to 2024 campaign

FIRST ON FOX – Former Vice President Mike Pence is planning to return on Wednesday to Iowa, the state that leads off the Republican Party’s presidential nominating calendar.

The jam-packed one-day trip to Iowa comes as Pence has repeatedly said he’ll decide in the spring whether to launch a 2024 White House run, joining a field of GOP contenders that already includes his one-time running mate – former President Donald Trump. Details on the trip to Iowa were shared first with Fox News on Monday.

Pence will start his day in the Hawkeye State in Urbandale, just outside of Des Moines, where he’ll give remarks at a breakfast hosted by the Westside Conservative Club. The group usually holds two breakfasts a month but added a third in March for the former vice president's visit.

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Pence will then take part in a fireside chat at a luncheon in Cedar Rapids, which will also include a book signing for his memoir "So Help Me God." The former vice president will conclude his day in Iowa by delivering remarks in Coralville at the Johnson County Republicans Reagan dinner.

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The stop in Iowa will be Pence’s second in a month and his eighth since the end of the Trump administration in January 2021. The former vice president has also made seven trips to New Hampshire, the state that holds the first primary and second contest overall in the GOP nominating calendar. 

Pence was in New Hampshire most recently a week and a half ago, for meetings with Republicans leaders and activists and to headline the Cheshire County GOP’s annual Lincoln-Reagan Dinner. He’s also made six stops the past two years in South Carolina, which votes third in the Republican schedule, and a couple of trips to Nevada, which holds the fourth contest.

The former vice president has also increasingly huddled with donors in recent months, as he appears to be moving closer to launching a White House campaign. But in an interview earlier this month with Fox News Digital on the sidelines of a major donor conference in Palm Beach, Florida, Pence said Republican voters’ familiarity with his story affords him some breathing room as he makes his 2024 decision.

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"I think the advantage that we have is I think the American people know the Pences," the former vice president said. "By and large they know our story and our career, and some are getting to know it better every day. So, we think we have time to be discerning, to be reflective, to listen."

Pence has also repeatedly pointed out his differences with both Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who’s also expected to get into the 2024 race in the coming months.

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"I do believe that different times call for different leadership. I think we’ll have better choices come 2024," Pence said in a Fox News Digital interview earlier this month, when asked about his former running mate. "I’m confident that Republican primary voters are going to choose well, that are going to choose a standard-bearer that will be able to lead us to victory in 2024."

And on Friday, in an interview on FOX Business, Pence added that "we’re getting a lot of encouragement around the country."