Last year, a group of conservatives got together to beg Rep. Michele Bachmann to run for House Speaker after the Republicans won control of the House. They weren’t very successful — only 800 people signed up by the last time the group updated their website and, of course, Bachmann did not run for the job now held by John Boehner.
But now that same group is pushing Bachmann to run for the highest position in the country. And this time, if the tea leaves Bachmann’s leaving all over the early presidential primary states are being read correctly, they may get their wish.
“We forced the establishment to respect the will of the Tea Party, and our petition drive made national news,” the leaders of WeNeedMichele.com wrote of their November campaign to “nearly 1,000 supporters” in an email the group shared with reporters Wednesday. “Now, we have set our sights on a bigger goal: convincing Michele to run for president.”
Who’s behind the drive? In November, the Daily Caller‘s Alex Pappas caught up with the leader of the Bachmann For Speaker campaign. That man was Tim Pierce, a “graphic designer from North Carolina” who told Pappas he came up with the idea of drafting Bachmann for Speaker “when he was discussing the midterms elections with friends at work.”
Pierce said he was “never in contact” with Bachmann or her team the last time around.
After the November elections, Bachmann did run for a House leadership position, but she stood back after House Republican leaders like Eric Cantor declined to get on board.
These days she seems determined to run for president no matter what anyone says. This weekend she was up in New Hampshire talking presidential politics (as well as dropping gaffes about the Revolutionary War) and in the recent past has made stops in Iowa and appeared among the possible presidential contenders on the dais at CPAC.
So it’s not clear how much of an impact Pierce’s petition will have on Bachmann’s final decision. But with the 2012 race looming, the drive is at least another sign that Bachmann could take her national tea party stardom to the biggest stage in national politics.
