Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is laying plans to go to Waterloo, Iowa, next month to kick off her campaign for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination.

Michele Bachmann

“When we make that all-important announcement, which will happen in the month of June, that announcement I am pleased to tell you tonight will be made in Iowa,” Bachmann said this evening.  “And I  also tell you that announcement will be made in the city where I was born, in Waterloo.”

Bachmann becomes the second presidential candidate to — and the second Minnesotan — to choose an Iowa venue to formally kick off their campaign. Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty was in Des Moines this past Monday for a campaign kick-off.  But Bachmann suggests she has an advantage over Pawlenty.

“Oh, goodness. Being born in Iowa gives every advantage, every advantage a girl would want to have,” Bachmann told reporters. “There is no downside to being born in Iowa.”

Bachmann spoke by phone with reporters who’d assembled in Des Moines to cover her scheduled appearance tonight at a Republican Party fundraiser, but she was unable to make the trip because of a vote in the U.S. House. Bachmann made clear her not-quite-yet-official campaign plan has already taken off.

“We already have hired staff in South Carolina, in New Hampshire, in Iowa. We have people on the ground,” Bachmann said. “We’re doing every aspect that we need to be doing in this effort because our main goal is make sure we can turn the country around.”

Bachmann is scheduled to appear, via Skype, to address the Republicans who’ve gathered in a Des Moines hotel ballroom for tonight’s event.  Jim and Debbie Dawson of Johnson were hoping to see Bachmann in person.

“I was here to listen,” Debbie Dawson said.  Jim Dawson said you get a “better feel” about a candidate when you see them in person. “I haven’t made a decision.  I don’t even have a favorite. I’m really kind of waiting for someone to come forth.”

If Bachmann’s formal decision to come forth as a candidate comes in early June, she would be able to participate in a nationally-televised candidate debate scheduled to air on CNN June 13.