FIRST ON FOX: Pence returns to New Hampshire; Will Trump Hold First Rally of 2024 in December?

EXCLUSIVE: As he moves toward a likely run for the White House in 2024, former Vice President Mike Pence will return to the crucial presidential nominating early voting state of New Hampshire.

Fox News has learned that on December 12, Pence will stop in New Hampshire, which for a century has held the first primary on the way to the White House. Pence will host two book signings for his new autobiography, “So Help Me God,” in which the former vice president takes stock of his career, including his four years serving under President Trump.

Pence, who has long been an advocate for social conservative voters, will hold a book signing in Manchester, New Hampshire, with Cornerstone, a nonprofit Christian advocacy organization in the Granite State. And she will participate in a second book signing at the Wentworth by the Sea Hotel in New Castle with the New Hampshire Federation of Republican Women.

The former vice president, who spent the past year and a half traveling the country to campaign and help raise money for Republicans running for office in 2022, has made several stops in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, the top four states. vote in the calendar of Republican presidential candidates.

WHAT PENCE SAID TO FOX NEWS ABOUT TRUMP’S ANNOUNCEMENT AND 2024

Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks at “Politics and Eggs” at Saint Anselm College’s New Hampshire Institute of Politics on August 17, 2022 in Goffstown, NH
(Fox News)

Pence has been making moves, including building relationships in early voting presidential primaries and caucus states that typically precede the launch of an actual White House campaign.

Those moves include promoting her new memoir, which debuted earlier this month at No. 2 on The New York Times bestseller list, and an accompanying media tour in which she participated in more than 40 interviews in the first week of the book’s publication. The former vice president’s media tour, which included four separate interviews with Fox News, began with a meeting with ABC World News Tonight, which helped boost the network’s nightly newscast to its most-watched broadcast in eight months.

Pence is also beginning to add staff ahead of his likely presidential bid, last week hiring a new communications director for his aligned nonprofit Advancing American Freedom. More hires, including fundraising assistants, are expected early in the new year.

PENCE CALLS TRUMP’S SPECIAL COUNCIL ANNOUNCEMENT ‘VERY PROBLEM’

And the former vice president spoke and held meetings last weekend in Las Vegas at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership meeting. The confab, which annually brings together top GOP leaders, donors and activists from across the country, was seen as the first major Republican cattle call in the 2024 White House race.

Former Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen at a book signing at the Republican Jewish Coalition Annual Leadership Conference on November 18, 2022 in Las Vegas
(Fox News)

Pence, in an interview with Fox News Digital on the sidelines of the conference, reiterated that a decision on whether to run for president will not come until next year, adding that he and his wife Karen “will make a decision wherever feel called.”

And Pence, interviewed just three days after Trump launched his latest campaign for the White House, emphasized that Trump’s move will not be a factor in his own decision regarding a presidential bid.

“The only decision that Karen and I have made is that we’re not going to let anyone else make that decision for us. Look, it’s a free country. President Trump had every right to announce his intention to seek election as president … but for us. as a family, it’s really about calling.”

RON DESANTIS RECEIVES AN OPINION AT THE 2024 GOP MAJOR MANAGEMENT CALL

Pence has repeatedly said in recent weeks that Republicans will have “better options” in the 2024 nomination race than the former president.

And in his Fox News Digital interview in Las Vegas, he hinted that Trump’s constant re-litigation of his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden may have contributed to the Republican Party’s lackluster performance in the midterm elections. term of this month.

The GOP fell short of a majority in the Senate, lost key gubernatorial races and won a very slim majority in the House, much lower than expected in what was supposed to be a “red wave” in the mid-term elections.

Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks at the annual leadership meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition on Nov. 18, 2022, in Las Vegas.
(AP Photo/John Locher)

Several Republicans have criticized the former president for pushing far-right MAGA-style candidates who backed Trump’s unproven claims that the 2020 election was stolen. These candidates won the Republican primaries, but ended up losing in high-profile, competitive general election matchups.

Pence said the common denominator in the midterms was that “candidates who focused on the future did well. Candidates who focused on the past or bashing the past didn’t do so well.” Asked if Trump deserved any blame, the former vice president replied: “I would say my former running mate was one of the people who talked about the past and it wasn’t helpful.”

Trump wants to hold two rallies in December: source

Trump has told his advisers and advisers that he would like to hold two rallies in the month of December.

“He wants to be relevant for the holiday season, but he doesn’t think he can go out on the campaign trail every day,” an adviser in Trump’s political orbit told Fox News on condition of anonymity to speak more freely.

TRUMP SETS FIRE IN 2024 GOP FIRST RUN

A separate source with knowledge of the former president’s thinking said discussions for next month’s rallies are underway, but nothing is set in stone. The source added that a couple of on-camera media interviews are being planned.

Former President Trump speaks during an event at his Mar-a-Lago home on November 15, 2022 in Palm Beach, Florida. Trump announced that he was seeking another term in the White House, officially launching his 2024 presidential campaign.
(Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Another Trump insider argued that this month’s announcement was “hastily planned” and that “nothing is happening.” The source told Fox News that “to say there’s disappointment in the launch by people who support the president is an understatement. It was very underwhelming.”

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Unlike his campaign launch for his bid for the White House in 2016, where he quickly made stops in early voting primaries and caucus states after declaring his candidacy in June 2015, this time Trump still to follow up his November 15 announcement with no campaign-style events.

Trump will participate in an event in Palm Beach, Fla., on Thursday organized by the nonprofit America Freedom Tour.