The Iowa State Fair draws presidential wannabes like cows draw flies.
Anyone who sees the White House in their dreams is obliged to make the pilgrimage to Des Moines to yak up farmers, gnaw on corn cobs and woo the precinct delegates who will vote in Iowa's critical first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses.
So why is former Michigan Congressman Mike Rogers strolling the Iowa fairgrounds this week with a corn dog in his hand?
The Republican's schedule offers a clue. This is his third trip to Iowa this summer. From here he'll make a second visit to South Carolina, another early voting state. And in October he's scheduled to be in New Hampshire, which holds the first true primary. Together, those states make up the presidential sweepstakes trifecta.
So it sure looks as if Rogers is dipping his toe into the 2024 presidential waters.
"Right now, no one is really running for president," says Rogers when asked about his own ambitions.
He says he's in Iowa and headed to the other places on behalf of his nonprofit, Leading to Ensure the American Dream (LEAD), an organization trying to elevate the political discourse.
"We're trying to change the tenor and tone through more hopeful messaging," says Rogers, wholeft Congress in 2015 to pursue a career in the media and national security consulting. "Iowa, North Carolina, New Hampshire are where the conversations are starting to happen. If we can be part of changing the tone to a more optimistic America, that's where I want to be."
A source close to Rogers says where he really wants to be is in the White House.
"He's in Iowa as part of the courtship, or really pre-courtship of caucus voters," says the source, who added Rogers has met with the nation's top Republican influencers and is encouraged by their response. "At this point it's about getting acquainted, sending a signal that you're going to be around."
Rogers, 59, left his Brighton-area district in 2015 after serving 14 years. As chair of the Intelligence Committee, he was at the height of his political career and speculation about his political future ran hot for awhile.
But Rogers settled into his consulting business, appearing regularly on CNN as a national security expert and staunch fiscal conservative. He recently moved his business from Washington, D.C., to Florida.
Several things set him apart from other possible GOP contenders. First among them is that he will, according to sources, run whether or not former President Donald Trump gets in the race. Trump's presence on the ballot is expected to scare off many other Republicans who would otherwise make a bid.
If Trump doesn't run, the GOP nomination will be a free-for-all featuring numerous contenders, nearly all clamoring for Trump's blessing.
Rogers won't. He is not a Never Trumper, but nor has he echoed the former president's outlandish stolen election claims. And he doesn't believe Trump will be the decider.
"The power in 2024 will be with candidates who move to their own positions of what America should look like," he says. "I don't think any endorsement is going to change the fate of any candidate."
Should he join the race, Rogers' pitch will sound starkly different from that of Trump and his acolytes.
"If we're going to continue to be an amazing country, we have to find a positive way to work through our challenges," he says. "People still want to believe in America. Nowhere else in the world do you see the kind of things that happen here."
If that conjures memories of former President Ronald Reagan's "shining city on a hill," it's not by coincidence.
Rogers came of political age during the Reagan years and was inspired by his belief in America's goodness and special place in the world.
The country, he says, again will turn toward a candidate who speaks to its better nature.
"I think there's always room for a message of hope and belief in America," Rogers says. "There are a lot of similarities today to how America was feeling about itself when Ronald Reagan came in. Americans were down on their country. It took someone who had this passionate belief that better days were ahead to move them."
He may be on to something. The rhetoric of recent political campaigns has been angry, hateful and divisive. There's a sense the country is coming apart. And that scares people.
If everyone else in the GOP nominating race is spewing conspiracy theories and sowing hatred, it's not pollyannaish to see a path for a candidate who brings a more aspirational message.
