DES MOINES, Iowa – Republican Tim Pawlenty, “T-Paw” to his supporters, has increasingly tied himself to the new crop of grass-roots activists in the 2012 presidential campaign.
So maybe it’s time to call the former Minnesota governor “Tea-Paw.”
He says his aggressive outreach to tea party audiences is one important part of a strategy to assemble the diverse network of backers he needs to go national and win the GOP nomination. He’s not focusing solely on this emerging force in party politics, he says, perhaps mindful not to alienate other Republican groups.
“I’m not trying to introduce myself to the tea party. I’m trying to introduce myself to the whole party … because I’m not known outside of Minnesota,” Pawlenty told The Associated Press in a telephone interview ahead of a Saturday appearance at a tea party rally at the Iowa Statehouse. He spoke at a similar rally in Boston on Friday and to the movement’s national summit in Phoenix in February.
A little-known Midwesterner trying to break out of a crowded GOP field, Pawlenty has said he needs to “win or do very well” in Iowa’s lead-off caucuses by attracting social conservatives and pro-business conservatives as well as newly motivated tea party followers.
Read More from the Article Source: Full Article
