Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack plans to officially kick-off his presidential campaign next week in his adopted hometown of Mount Pleasant in southeast Iowa.
Vilsack was orphaned at birth, adopted by Bud and Dolly Vilsack and raised in the Pittsburg, Pennsylvania area. Vilsack met Mount Pleasant native Christie Bell when the two were attending colleges on the east coast. But the couple decided to make Mount Pleasant their home. Vilsack often says it was his first trip to Mount Pleasant, just after he’d asked Christie to marry him, that sealed the deal.
Vilsack friend Lennis Moore of Mount Pleasant described the scene for Radio Iowa during an interview back in 2004. “The first experience he had in this small town of Mount Pleasant was a potluck family dinner and (Vilsack) was so impressed by and struck by the sense of family that existed that he wanted very much to have that not only for himself, but also for his family,” Moore said.
The opening event of Vilsack’s announcement tour will be a community pot luck dinner at the Mount Pleasant Middle School on Wednesday night.