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DES MOINES, Iowa — <\/span>DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) \u2014 Vice President JD Vance<\/a> heads to Iowa on Tuesday, marking his first visit since taking office to the state where Republicans in less than two years<\/a> will cast the initial votes to pick their party\u2019s next presidential nominee.<\/p>\n Vance, who is seen as one of the GOP\u2019s strongest potential candidates<\/a> for president in 2028, is making the trip to campaign on behalf of Republican Rep. Zach Nunn, who faces a competitive race<\/a> to keep his Des Moines-area seat in the November midterms<\/a>.<\/p>\n The vice president, a former U.S. senator who represented Ohio, departed Washington accompanied by his son Vivek. He will first stop in Cincinnati to vote in Ohio’s primary elections, followed by an appearance in Oklahoma City to hold a fundraiser in his role as finance chair of the Republican National Committee. <\/p>\n But the visit to Iowa offers Vance an opportunity to test his reception before Iowa\u2019s voters, whose leadoff caucuses<\/a> give them an outsized role in determining the next presidential nominee. Campaigning for a local congressman in his role as the sitting vice president gives him an opening chance to make an impression on Iowa Republicans, seasoned evaluators of those who seek the nation\u2019s highest office before the campaign begins in earnest.<\/p>\n Vance\u2019s appearance comes days after Texas Sen. Ted Cruz<\/a>, who is also considered a possible 2028 candidate, spoke to a group of evangelical Christians who are influential in Iowa\u2019s GOP contest.<\/p>\n Des Moines-based Jimmy Centers, a Republican political consultant, said the 2028 contest is \u201clight-years away\u201d but said the Republicans who hear Vance speak on Tuesday will be evaluating how he might measure up in an election for the White House.<\/p>\n \u201cI certainly think, as of right now, Vice President Vance would probably be a straw-poll winner of Iowa Republicans for 2028. But I don\u2019t think anyone is saying, \u2018We won\u2019t consider anybody else,\u2019\u201d Centers said.<\/p>\n Vance, who has not said whether he will run for the presidency in 2028, is scheduled to appear with Nunn at a manufacturing facility in Des Moines. His office did not comment on the trip’s impact on Vance’s political future.<\/p>\n The vice president\u2019s visit follows a trip President Donald Trump made<\/a> in January to tout the administration\u2019s tax cuts, part of a string of stops they\u2019re making this year on economic issues<\/a> before midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.<\/p>\n But Vance\u2019s visit comes when his own political prospects \u2014 and the message he\u2019s expected to deliver on the economy \u2014 have been complicated by the war in Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n The vice president, who has long been skeptical of foreign military interventions, has seemed a reluctant defender of the 9-week-old war<\/a>, for which Trump has struggled to find an off-ramp. Iowans, like much of the rest of the country, are grappling with higher gas prices<\/a> because of the conflict. But the state\u2019s farmers are also feeling the pinch of high fertilizer costs<\/a> from the war and have been hurt by tariffs Trump has imposed.<\/p>\n While Iowa\u2019s farmers have steadfastly supported the president, they have been looking to the White House for assurances that the current troubles won\u2019t last.<\/p>\n Vance\u2019s visit to Iowa was originally scheduled for last week, but the timing shifted because the House moved to pass a sweeping farm bill that Nunn was due to vote on.<\/p>\n The vice president also had been slated to appear last week at an Iowa State University event with Turning Point USA<\/a>, but the organization said it was not able to reschedule the event with the university until the fall.<\/p>\n Kim Schmett, a longtime Iowa GOP activist, said the presidential cycle starts \u201cdeceptively slow.\u201d<\/p>\n Republican figures testing the waters often drop by the Westside Conservative Club, which Schmett hosts, but he said it’s still too far out from the caucuses, which are typically held in January of the presidential election year.<\/p>\n He said Trump\u2019s Make America Great Again political movement \u201cis very alive and going here\u201d in Iowa, which would benefit Vance \u2014 as well as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also thought to be a potential candidate<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI think there\u2019s going to be a lot of MAGA support,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd Vice President Vance and Marco Rubio seem to be the recipients of where that is going at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n But Schmett cautioned, \u201cit\u2019s awfully, awfully early in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n On the Democratic side, at least half a dozen presidential prospects have been making visits to the states with the earliest presidential primary contests, including recent visits to Iowa by former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg<\/a> and Michigan U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, potential Republican presidential candidates \u201care treading very lightly,\u201d said GOP strategist Alex Conant, who worked on Rubio\u2019s 2016 presidential campaign.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Republicans are going to be very reluctant to get in Trump\u2019s way until Trump gives the green light for the campaign to start,\u201d Conant said.<\/p>\n That means much of the groundwork to meet with donors or activists or recruit political staffers might happen slowly and subtly \u2013 for now.<\/p>\n After the midterms? Conant said: \u201cIt\u2019ll be irresistible.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Price reported from Washington.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n