Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney helped the Republicans who’re running for statewide office kick-off a get-out-the-vote tour of the state.
Romney spoke to a crowd of about 200 this morning in Cedar Rapids. “There’s something very powerful going on in the country,” Romney said. “You recognize that there’s going to be a remarkable rejection of Obama, Pelosi, Reid and the liberal policies you see right here in Iowa.”
Romney, who spoke for a little less than eight minutes, told the crowd liberals are trying to “smother that spirit of America,” and citizens across the country are responding.
“We’ve had a chance to see liberal policies in action and they have not worked and people are saying, ‘No more of that,'” Romney said. “We’ve watched what happened when they built their stimulus which didn’t create private sector jobs. It instead protected government workers and unions. It did not do what the economy needed, which was to stimulate investment and hiring in the private sector where jobs will stay and grow. And then we saw ObamaCare, We saw their cap and trade efforts and their card-check efforts, and so people have said,’Look, that liberal agenda doesn’t work.'”
The rally lasted for just half-an-hour, with Terry Branstad, the Republican candidate for governor, serving as the closer, telling the crowd he was preaching to the choir. “But you know, there’s a reason why you want to preach to the choir — because the choir needs to sing! And you need to sing to all your neighbors and friends and coworkers and we need to get ’em out to vote,” Branstad said, yelling over the cheering and applause. “We need to make November 2 a great Republican victory for this whole team.”
Branstad and Romney shared the stage with all the statewide Republican candidates, plus second district congressional candidate Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Ottumwa. Branstad offered this as a closing argument to voters.
“We’re in the final week of this campaign and we’ve charted a path that’s taken us through all 99 counties,” Branstad said, then he paused for several seconds. “What I’ve seen and what I’ve heard from you, the people of Iowa, is that we need to chart a new path towards job creation over the next four years and we intend to do that.”
Branstad and his running-mate intend to visit 36 cities in Iowa over the next seven days. Romney is scheduled to speak this evening at a banquet in the Quad Cities.
Listen to the entire rally here: Republican Cedar Rapids Rally 29:51 MP3