By Craig Robinson

TheIowaRepublican.com has confirmed that South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint will soon visit the Hawkeye State.  Sen. DeMint is scheduled to travel to the home of the First-In-The-Nation caucus on Saturday, March 26th.

DeMint will be in Iowa to keynote an event for Congressman Steve King.  The event, which is being billed as a “conference,” will not be held in the 5th Congressional District, which King represents, but rather it will be held in Des Moines.  King will release more details about the event later today.

Just yesterday, DeMint told CNN Anchor Wolf Blitzer that he’s not running for President, but that’s not preventing Human Event’s “Conservative of the Year” from traveling to Iowa later this spring.  President Obama once emphatically told reporters that he wasn’t running for president, yet today, his family occupies the most famous address in the world.

For months, members of the news media have lamented over the relatively slow start to the 2012 caucuses.  That slow start is now a thing of the past as potential candidates like Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, and Tim Pawlenty have all visited the state lately, and the national media is now eagerly following the race.

Bachmann’s visit a week ago created quite a stir as FOX News followed her every step, but for one reason or another, Bachmann didn’t utilize one of her biggest assets while in Iowa – her personal relationship with King.  Many question whether or not Bachmann will actually run for president in 2012, but the news that King is bringing in DeMint to the state is the largest development to occur in the young caucus season.

Many conservatives across the nation, including some here in Iowa, would like to see DeMint run for president.  It’s easy to see what these people like in him.  His conservative credentials are impeccable.  His willingness to stand up to his own party is admirable.  And, his appeal as a candidate would be broad.

We should also not forget that DeMint’s Senate Conservatives Fund is largely responsible for giving the country Senators Marco Rubio and Pat Toomey, but he also helped elect Senators Mike Lee, Rand Paul, and Ron Johnson as well.

Just like he did in those 2010 U.S. Senate races, maybe DeMint would rather play kingmaker than be the king himself.  The idea that the conservative icon from Iowa (King) will be hosting the conservative icon from South Carolina (DeMint) makes this one event that Iowa caucus goers, and of course the media, will not want to miss.

If DeMint is absolutely not running for president, and King’s “conference” is opened up to other presidential candidates to attend, this might even turn out to be the most important and public job interview any presidential candidate will ever have.

Receiving the seal of approval from both King and DeMint would go a long way toward paving the way to the nomination when you consider the political sway both King and DeMint have in their respective states, which hold two of the first three major contests.

TheIowaRepublican.com will post the details of this event when they are made available.