Rep. Michele Bachmann has been hinting at a presidential run for awhile, and her announcement is likely to come on Thursday according to the chairman of the Polk County Republican Party in Iowa.
“Bachmann is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at a fund-raising dinner for the party Thursday evening,” reported the Des Moines Register today. “Kevin McLaughlin, the party’s county chairman, said there is a good chance she will make her announcement there.”
Announcing in Iowa would be a smart move for Bachmann, who already has a decent chance of success in the state. Not only is she an Iowa native, but she’s also a favorite of the social conservatives who tend to dominate the state’s caucuses.
In another indication that she has her eye on the primaries, Bachmann placed 150,000 robocalls into Iowa and South Carolina after President Obama’s speech yesterday, criticizing him for his comments on Israel.
With Huckabee out of the race, Bachmann is in a prime position to replace him as the social conservative candidate, as long as Sarah Palin doesn’t enter the picture. She’s also an excellent fundraiser with a strong grassroots following, though she’s way too divisive to win a national election. By entering the race, she’d probably push the rest of the field to the right and make social issues a more prominent part of the primaries.
