Campaign

Trump, 2024 GOP contenders to address Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition

Former President Trump speaks at his Mar-a-Lago estate Tuesday, April 4, 2023, in Palm Beach, Fla., after being arraigned earlier in the day in New York City.

Former President Trump will join a slew of potential 2024 presidential candidates in addressing the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition later this month.

The organization will hold its spring kick-off event on April 22, marking one of the first major cattle calls for would-be GOP presidential candidates in the state, which hosts the first caucus on the primary calendar.

Trump will deliver remarks, his campaign confirmed Wednesday. Other invited guests include Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), former Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R), though not all are confirmed speakers.

Trump and Haley are already declared candidates for 2024, while Scott on Wednesday formed an exploratory committee around a potential bid. Pence, DeSantis and some of the other speakers are expected to decide in the coming weeks whether to run for the GOP nomination in 2024.

It will be one of Trump’s first political events since he was charged last week in Manhattan criminal court with 34 felony counts over his involvement in a hush money payment to keep an alleged affair quiet during the 2016 campaign. The former president pleaded not guilty.

A late March poll conducted by a GOP firm found DeSantis leading Trump by 8 percentage points in Iowa in a hypothetical head-to-head match-up, though when the field was expanded to include other candidates, the two men were tied.

Updated at 2:33 p.m.