Tom Cotton campaigns in Iowa, banks political capital ahead of potential 2024 presidential run

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Tom Cotton: Biden's vaccine mandate is 'counterproductive'

Senator Tom Cotton touts the vaccine as safe and effective but says Biden's mandate may be unlawful and notes that the administration won't be able to persuade people to get vaccinated.

TREYNOR, IOWA - Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton spent last weekend campaigning on behalf of Republicans and meeting with local leaders in Iowa, which will host the first GOP presidential caucus in 2024. 

Fox News caught up with Cotton, whose name has been floated as a potential 2024 contender, in between events at a local community center where the senator attended the Pottawattamie County GOP’s Lincoln/Reagan Day Dinner and participated in an agricultural roundtable with county locals. 

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Cotton, whose busy weekend schedule included freshman Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks' reelection campaign launch in Iowa City, predicted that Republicans would win back both the House and Senate in the 2022 midterm elections. 

"The American people want to put the brakes on the Biden agenda," Cotton told Fox News. "This is not what they thought they were voting for last year. Certainly not $6 trillion of reckless, socialized spending and not weakness abroad. Not rising crime at home." 

"The American people are going to want a Republican Congress to put the brakes on Joe Biden’s radical agenda next year," he added.

But the senator kept his cards closer to the vest when the subject turned to the 2024 election. 

Cotton declined to say whether he believes former President Trump should challenge President Biden and run for the White House again in 2024.

Cotton told Fox News he was not going to "speculate about elections that far off" while "big ones," such as the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races this year and next year's midterm elections, are just around the corner. 

"Those races and further off from that will work themselves out when we get there," Cotton said. "But my focus right now will be, in the short term, politically."

"I’m talking about Senate work, trying to help elect new governors in Virginia and New Jersey, and then next year in particular trying to win back the House of Representatives and Senate," the senator continued. "And Iowa once again will play a really big role in that with three competitive House races and a Senate race."

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And when asked whether he was eyeing a 2024 run himself, Cotton said it's too early to talk about a presidential run. 

"As I said, I'm not going to speculate about elections that are three elections out when we've got important elections coming up in about six weeks and another one that's about a year off," Cotton said.

Houston Keene is a reporter for Fox News Digital. You can find him on Twitter at @HoustonKeene.