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Vance\u2019s appearance comes days after Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who is also considered a possible 2028 candidate, spoke to a group of evangelical Christians who are influential in Iowa\u2019s GOP contest.<\/p>\n
Des Moines-based Jimmy Centers, a Republican political consultant, said the 2028 contest is \u201clight-years away,\u201d but said the Republicans who hear Vance speak on Tuesday will be evaluating how he might measure up in an election for the White House.<\/p>\n
\u201cI certainly think, as of right now, Vice President Vance would probably be a straw-poll winner of Iowa Republicans for 2028. But I don\u2019t think anyone is saying, \u2018We won\u2019t consider anybody else,\u2019\u201d Centers said.<\/p>\n
Vance visit comes as higher prices for gas, fertilizer hit Iowans<\/p>\n
Vance, who has not said whether he will run for the presidency in 2028, is scheduled to appear with Nunn at a manufacturing facility in Des Moines. His office did not comment on the trip\u2019s impact on Vance\u2019s political future.<\/p>\n
The vice president\u2019s visit follows a trip President Donald Trump made in January to tout the administration\u2019s tax cuts, part of a string of stops they\u2019re making this year on economic issues ahead of the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.<\/p>\n
But Vance\u2019s visit comes at a time when his own political prospects \u2014 and the message he\u2019s expected to deliver on the economy \u2014 have been complicated by the war in Iran.<\/p>\n
The vice president, who has long been skeptical of foreign military interventions, has seemed a reluctant defender of the nine-week-old war for which Trump has struggled to find an off-ramp. Iowans, like much of the rest of the country, are grappling with higher gas prices because of the conflict. But the state\u2019s farmers are also feeling the pinch of high fertilizer costs from the war and have been hurt by the tariffs Trump has imposed.<\/p>\n
While Iowa\u2019s farmers have steadfastly supported the president, they have been looking to the White House for assurances that the current troubles won\u2019t last.<\/p>\n
Vance\u2019s visit to Iowa was originally scheduled for last week, but the timing shifted because the House moved to pass a sweeping farm bill that Nunn was due to vote on.<\/p>\n