An Iowa native says he wrote the majority of the speech First Lady Michelle Obama delivered this weekend in Cedar Falls. Obama gave the commencement address at the University of Northern Iowa on Saturday. Tyler Lechtenberg, a graduate of the University of Iowa, currently works on the First Lady’s communications staff.
“I was pretty excited,” Lechtenberg says. “It’s Mother’s Day this weekend so I get a chance to spend the weekend at home. Every speech we do resonated with me in some way, (but) this one just a little bit more.”
Lechtenberg grew up in Strawberry Point and graduated from Starmont High School in 2000. He was in Cedar Falls Saturday for Mrs. Obama’s speech.
“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t, you know, pretty special for me to be back here,” Lechtenberg says. Mrs. Obama’s also scheduled to give the commencement speech at Spelman College and to address the cadets at West Point this month.
“That’s one of the joys of working for her is that these are the speeches that she wants to give,” Lechtenberg says. “She works on them and these are things that resonate with her and I think you can feel the emotion when she gives it as well.”
Lechtenberg spent four years as a sportswriter for The Cedar Rapids Gazette before getting involved in politics.
By Jesse Gavin, KCNZ, Cedar Falls