Michelle Obama
First Lady Michelle Obama spoke to a crowd of over 1,200 at Drake University this afternoon, urging students and supporters to “show up” and “get to work” to elect Bruce Braley to the U.S. Senate.
“And Iowa, we know how to do this. We’ve done it before,” Obama said. “We know how to do this, so if we keep stepping up and bringing others along with us, then I know that we can we keep making that change we believe in. I know that we can elect Bruce Braley the next senator from Iowa.”
A satellite voting station on the Des Moines campus remained open for 45 minutes after the First Lady’s speech ended and some in the crowd said they were planning to go vote.
During her 23-minute speech Obama reminisced about campaigning with her husband in Iowa for the 2008 and 2012 elections and she warned President Obama’s agenda would be stymied if Republicans win the U.S. Senate.
Michelle Obama at Drake University.
“Frankly, if we don’t elect leaders like Bruce to the senate, it’s going to be a whole lot harder to finish what we started — and we’ve been doing good — because if we don’t bring leaders like Bruce in, things will get even worse out in Washington,” Obama said. “We’ll just see more conflict and obstruction, more lawsuits and talk about impeachment, more votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act or even shut down the government — behavior that just wastes time and it definitely wastes taxpayers’ money.”
Obama mispronounced Braley’s name as “Bailey” seven times before the crowd got involved as she was reciting a campaign web address. As people in the crowd shouted “Braley.” Obama responded: “What did I say? I’m losing it. I am getting old.”
Obama laughed before adding: “I’ve been traveling too much.”
She then correctly and emphatically pronounced Braley’s name, adding: “I know where I am. I know what I’m doing.” The crowd cheered and applauded.
Within half an hour of the event’s conclusion Republicans had claimed the domain name “VoteBruceBailey.com” and linked it directly to the campaign website for Joni Ernst, Braley’s Republican opponent. The Braley campaign handed out cards at the rally, asking for more volunteers to sign up to canvas neighborhoods and turn out voters.
AUDIO of Bruce Braley & Michelle Obama, 37:00