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The Conservative Reader:
Iowa

Sam Clovis

After several weeks of hinting he may join the U.S. Senate primary race, later today Sioux City based professor and radio host Sam Clovis will hold a press conference.

Though he was coy regarding the specifics, and refused to say it is even in regards to the Senate race, he told the Sioux City Journal, “I’ll be making an announcement that affects my future, and certainly my future on the radio, and it is a commitment for something down the road.”  Saying the announcement will affect his radio talk show job certainly suggests he is running—as once he has legally filed the FCC political broadcasting rules come into play and the station would be forced to give equal air-time to his opponents should they request it.  As a reaction to this most stations require a radio personality-turned-candidate to temporarily step down.

He also went on to tell the Sioux City Journal, “I’ve been a natural leader my whole life and I think those are, again, skills that are very lacking in Washington. Because we don’t have people who are willing to stand up and tell people the truth and then stick to their principles to make sure that happens. Everything seems to be about self-interest, nothing seems to be about the people of the country…I’ve been an executive; I’ve been in business, non-profit, for-profit, education, military service second to none, a very distinguished career there. So I have all of the credentials that one would need to be a person that one would look to lead and do the things that are necessary to lead this country, particularly if one pursued public office in the United States Senate.”

 

What This Means

While it’s standard to not give away the headline and tell the media what the press conference is specifically for, the language “a commitment for something down the road” strikes me as a little strange if this were going to be a straight announcement.  It would be unorthodox, but perhaps it will be a commitment to run if he sees the other candidates as not succeeding or not being sufficiently Conservative for him.  If he is not running I’m guessing he will at a minimum be seeking an audience with the currently declared candidates to talk issues.

Should he be announcing a decision to run in a few hours, we will have more information on his background (which is pretty extensive) and analysis on how the race would be impacted in the coming days.

Since he has already said publicly that he would be a “red-meat Conservative”—it’s pretty obvious where he’d want to move the discourse.

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