Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann may be leaving Congress at the end of the year, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have any more political aspirations. In fact, the conservative lawmaker doesn’t understand why there hasn’t been more buzz about her future plans.
“The only thing that the media has speculated on is that it’s going to be various men that are running,” she told RealClearPolitics Tuesday. “They haven’t speculated, for instance, that I’m going to run. What if I decide to run? And there’s a chance I could run.”
Bachmann made an unsuccessful bid for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, but she considers that campaign adequate “practice” for a potential follow-up run in 2016.
“I haven’t made a decision one way or another if I’m going to run again, but I think the organization is probably the key,” she told RealClearPolitics. “To have an organization and people who surround you who are loyal, who are highly competent, who know how to be able to run the ball down the field in state after state.”
Bachmann announced her plan to not seek re-election to Congress amid investigations, including one by the FBI, into allegedly unethical behavior on the part of her 2012 campaign. She has insisted that her decision to leave office “was not impacted in any way” by the scrutiny.
After winning the Ames Straw Poll in Iowa in 2011, Bachmann appeared positioned to be a potential front-runner in the 2012 campaign. But her surge was short-lived. She placed sixth in the Iowa caucuses with just 5% of the vote and dropped out of the race completely the following day.
Her name has not be mentioned frequently among potential 2016 GOP contenders like Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
Adam Howard