GOP presidential hopefuls Vivek Ramaswamy and Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) are heading back to Iowa for another round of campaigning as North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum — fresh from his presidential launch this week — continues his tour of the Hawkeye State.
No rest for the weary.
Ramaswamy will kick off his seventh trip to the first-in-the-nation caucus state since launching his campaign in February.
The Ohio entrepreneur and political outsider plans a two-day, six-stop swing — from west to east — beginning Wednesday evening with a town hall in Sioux City at 7 p.m. On Thursday, Ramaswamy travels to eastern Iowa for Pancakes with Vivek, beginning at 9 a.m. at Dubuque’s Veterans Freedom Center. He’s scheduled to attend a National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors Lunch, a business roundtable in Davenport, and a meet-and-greet with legislative and local officials in Bettendorf. He’ll cap the day with a Scott County GOP Pints and Politics event at 5:30 p.m. at Thunder Bay Grille in Davenport.
The 37-year-old anti-woke crusader made headlines Thursday when he issued a statement pledging that, if elected, he would pardon fellow presidential candidate Donald Trump should the former president be convicted of the crimes contained in the new federal indictment against him. Trump announced Thursday, and federal law enforcement officials confirmed, that he has been indicted related to documents found in a sweeping raid on his Florida property, and his handling of the allegedly classified records.
“It would be much easier for me to win this election if Trump weren’t in the race, but I stand for principles over politics. I commit to pardon Trump promptly on January 20, 2025 and to restore the rule of law in our country,” Ramaswamy said, asserting there are “two tiers of justice” in a federal government that treats President Joe Biden — who also has been caught with alleged classified documents — differently.
Scott, who announced his bid for the White last month, also took aim at what he called the “weaponization of the Department of Justice against a former president.”
“You don’t have to be a Republican to see injustice and want to fix it. You don’t have to be a Democrat to see injustice and want to fix it. You just have to be an American and stand up for the right thing,” Scott said on Fox News on Thursday.
“Today, what we see is a justice system where the scales are weighted. That seems to be the outcome of where we are today,” he said, adding that should he be elected president he “would purge all of the injustices and impurities” in the judicial system.
Scott will be back in Iowa on Wednesday for a town hall in Pella. He was last in the Hawkeye State, along with Ramaswamy and six other GOP presidential candidates, last weekend for U.S. Senator Joni Ernst’s (R-Iowa) annual Roast and Ride fundraiser.
“I’m excited to be back in the Hawkeye State. As we continue to take our message of faith and optimism anchored in conservatism across the country, voters are gravitating toward our campaign focused on hope, opportunity, and protecting the America we love,” Scott said in a statement.
Meanwhile, North Dakota favorite son Burgum has been making the rounds in Iowa following his campaign launch in Fargo earlier this week.
He held a meet-and-greet at a Farley farm equipment supplier and made the requisite political pilgrimage to the Field of Dreams in Dyersville.
“I grew up in a town of 300 people, a small ag community. Iowa is like home to us, … except there’s more people here,” Burgum told reporters. “We grew up in these ag businesses, we know that these are the people that make America work, and we thought this is a great place for us to start.”
On Friday, the governor was slated to campaign in Ankeny, Elkart, and at the World Pork Expo at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines, before lunch at Maid-Rite with local activists, according to his campaign.
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Vivek Ramaswamy” by Vivek Ramaswamy. Photo “Tim Scott” by Renee Bouchard. Photo “Doug Burgum” by Governor Doug Burgum. Background Photo “Iowa State Capitol” by Vkulikov. CC BY-SA 3.0.
