Iowa’s senior U.S. senator and the most junior member of the state’s executive branch both used their speeches at this weekend’s Iowa GOP State Convention to urge Republicans to rally behind Mitt Romney. Senator Chuck Grassley said making Romney president would “save this country.”
“I’m here today, mostly, for a call for unity,” Grassley said. “We all want to defeat President Obama.”
Grassley warned Obama would be “more destructive” in a second term.
“It’s up to us to stick together to defeat him and to support our candidate — and I’ll make it clear my candidate — Mitt Romney,” Grassley said, to applause.
At the end of his 12-minute speech, Grassley said Romney would help the country “find its way again” and Republicans need to “unite to save America” and help Romney carry Iowa in November.
“It will take every Republican, every conserative, every defender of the constitution to make that happen,” Grassley said. “And we’ve got to be working arm-in-arm.”
Matt Schultz was elected Iowa Secretary of State in 2010 and he endorsed Rick Santorum before the 2012 Caucuses. Schultz said Republicans, by working together, could help Romney carry Iowa in November.
“We are going to make Mitt Romney the president of the United States and defeat Barack Obama,” Schultz said.
A.J. Spiker, the chairman of the Iowa Republican Party, was the first to speak at this weekend’s G-O-P convention and while he blasted President Obama, Spiker did not once mention Romney’s name. Spiker worked on Ron Paul’s Caucus campaign.
Later in the convention, Congressman Steve King — a Republican from Kiron — received a rowdy standing ovation when he was introduced. He closed his speech with a testimonial for Romney.
“I trust Mitt Romney to do the right thing,” King said, as a few delegates shouted: “I don’t.”
King continued: “Some of you may not, but here’s what you can trust. You can always trust Barack Obama to do the wrong thing.”
Listen to the many of the speeches here.
A confusing and sometimes contentious debate of the rules for the state convention had enveloped the convention floor by mid-Saturday. The convention chairman at one point threatened to expel a delegate who had screamed into a microphone. There was also a charge of “malpractice” on the part of the committee that nominated a slate of delegates for the Republican National Convention and a complicated bid to put forwad a different “unity” slate of national convention delegates.