Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has created a political action committee to support Republican candidates in the 2022 midterm elections, Politico reported Tuesday.
The move also could help Pompeo, a potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate, expand his national political profile.
Pompeo told Politico that the Champion American Values PAC will be able to raise unlimited amounts of money and help candidates running for federal, state, and local offices.
"It is unambiguously clear to me that if we don’t get it right in the next 16 or 17 months, what will happen over these next four years will make it incredibly difficult for whoever is elected president in 2024. So that is my singular focus," Pompeo said in a telephone interview with Politico.
Pompeo said he told House and Senate GOP leaders he would assist them ahead of the midterms. The CAVPAC will allow him to travel the country and campaign, fundraise, and donate to Republican candidates.
Saying his focus was backing candidates who could win the general election, Pompeo told Politico he was willing to intervene in contested Republican primaries. He already has thrown his support behind former Trump White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who’s running for Arkansas governor, and Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., who’s opposing Andrew Giuliani, son of former New York City mayor and Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, in the New York gubernatorial primary.
"You can absolutely imagine me getting involved in races where there are multiple Republican candidates," Pompeo told Politico. "My goal is pretty clear: I want to elect the most conservative, electable candidate we can find in each of these races, whether its school board, city council, or a United States Senate seat."
Pompeo becomes the third high-profile Trump administration figure to set up a committee that will allow them to aid candidates. Vice President Mike Pence and former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, also considered possible 2024 presidential contenders, previously did likewise.
Pompeo was one of the few senior administration officials who maintained a consistently stable relationship with former President Donald Trump through his four years in office.
The 57-year-old former CIA director and ex-congressman has planned a busy summer schedule, according to Politico. He’ll travel to Miami later this week and to Southern California late next month. He’s also planning a July visit to the Family Leadership Summit in Iowa, an early voting state where speculation will increase that Pompeo has eyes on 2024.
Pompeo has appeared at more than 25 events, including more than a half-dozen for House Republicans and several for the party’s House and Senate campaign organizations, since leaving the State Department in January, Politico said.
"We’re going to go out, and we’ve started this already, but we’re going to go out and expand to a greater degree, helping candidates all across the country," Pompeo told Politico.
Pompeo is expected to appear at this month’s Republican National Committee’s summer donor retreat in Dana Point, Calif, and speak at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Calif., next month as part of a series on the future of the Republican Party.
Politico said Pompeo also is expected to host an upcoming event for Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who’s up for reelection next year.
Pence and Haley also are expected to travel a lot this summer, especially to congressional districts ahead of the midterm elections.
CAVPAC, named after the U.S. Army Cavalry, in which Pompeo served, originally filed papers with the Federal Election Commission in February.