Mitt Romney will formally announce he's running for president June 2 at a barbecue in Stratham, New Hampshire, the Union-Leader's John DiStaso reports. Romney is the first Republican candidate to make it official in New Hampshire, significant because unlike in 2008, Romney is considering running a scaled-back campaign in Iowa, where social conservatives are a bigger segment of the electorate. Last campaign, Romney, who once supported abortion and gay rights, had trouble convincing voters he was a true believer on social issues and not just adopting more conservative positions out of political expediency.

Someone who'll have a lot less trouble winning over conservative Iowans is Michele Bachmann, the Tea Party favorite, who will announce her own candidacy in her birthplace of Waterloo, Iowa, in June. Bachmann said she still might not run during a conference call with reporters Thursday, the Associated Press' Brian Bakst reports. Bachmann had intended to speak at a Republican dinner in Des Moines, but had to stay in Washington for a vote, so she addressed the crowed through a video feed. That made for a "bizarre scene for an almost-campaign announcement," Bakst writes, as reporters crowded around the podium in Des Moines to ask her video image questions. Being born in Waterloo gives her  "every advantage a girl would want to have," Bachmann said. As for fellow polarizer Sarah Palin's potential campaign, Bachmann said, "I don't believe that any two candidates are interchangeable. Each one of us brings our own unique skill sets into this race."

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Elspeth Reeve