The Republican presidential field could be on the verge of having two Minnesotans — and one of them a national Tea Party movement star, with Rep. Michele Bachmann reportedly set to establish a presidential exploratory committee in June.
As CNN reports, a source close to Bachmann says it could potentially happen even earlier:
“She’s been telling everyone early summer,” the source told CNN regarding Bachmann’s planned June filing and announcement. But the source said that nothing is static.
“If you [debate sponsors] come to us and say, ‘To be in our debates, you have to have an exploratory committee,’ then we’ll say, ‘Okay, fine…I’ll go file the forms.'”
Bachmann’s fellow Minnesotan, former Gov. Tim Pawlenty, established his own exploratory committee earlier this week. What Bachmann can bring to the table is an ability to excite enthusiasm with the Tea Party base — and also some interesting expertise with alternative American history.
The last time that Bachmann sought a higher office, in 2006, when she was a state senator running for an open House seat, she famously told a mega-church audience that she had communicated with God, receiving through fasting and prayer his command to run:
“And in the midst of that calling, God then called me to run for the United States Congress. And I thought, what in the world would that be for? And my husband said “You need to do this.” And I wasn’t so sure. And we took three days, and we fasted and we prayed. And we said “Lord, is this what you want? Is this Your will?” And after — along about the afternoon of day two — He made that calling sure. And it’s been now 22 months that I’ve been running for United States Congress. Who in their right mind would spend two years to run for a job that lasts for two years? You’d have to be absolutely a fool to do that. You are now looking at a fool for Christ. This is a fool for Christ.”
