Pompeo fuels 2024 speculation with cash infusion into new PAC with Wichita ties

Ben Wieder
·2 min read
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Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s dormant U.S. House campaign fund has donated to a newly formed political action committee that uses the same Kansas-based bank and bears the name of his new political slogan, according to financial disclosures.

The Champion American Values committee was created on February 22. Two days later, Pompeo’s former House committee, Pompeo for Kansas, Inc. contributed $155,000 to the new PAC.

Pompeo for Kansas had just over $845,000 at the end of March, according to the committee’s filing Thursday with the Federal Election Commission. Both Champion American Values and Pompeo for Kansas have the same treasurer, Robert F. Carlin.

Champion American Values shares the same bank as Pompeo’s old campaign committee, Emprise Bank in Wichita, where Pompeo’s wife, Susan, was formerly a senior vice president.

Pompeo frequently uses the phrase “championing American values,” including twice during his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando this February.

“Keep grinding, keep championing American values,” Pompeo told the convention of conservative activists.

Pompeo has taken other steps to suggest that he might run for president in 2024, including a trip to Iowa last month.

Other prospective 2024 candidates not currently in office have federal political action committees.

Former Vice President Mike Pence established the Great America Committee in May 2017, shortly after taking office in the Trump administration. The committee had just over $240,000 on hand at the end of February.

Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley formed the Stand for America PAC in the final days of the Trump presidency, on January 11. She said the PAC will be focused on supporting Republican candidates in 2022 midterm elections. The committee hasn’t reported yet how much it has raised.

Representatives of Pompeo and of the PAC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Star’s Bryan Lowry and McClatchy’s Michael Wilner contributed to this story.