Deidre DeJear (DeJear campaign photo)
Another Democrat has launched a campaign for governor and two state party leaders appear positioned to have key roles in deciding the schedule of events in the 2024 presidential race.
Democrat Deidra DeJear has been traveling the state for the past few weeks and formally kicked off her campaign for governor this weekend. “Tell your friends, tell your family that we’ve got work to do and we’re going to get it done,” DeJear said, to cheers from supporters gathered in a Des Moines area park.
DeJear won the Democratic Party’s Primary for secretary of state in 2018 and became the first black Iowan nominated to run for statewide office. DeJear, a small business owner from Des Moines, said problems won’t be solved by one person, one party or one demographic. She also addressed how polarizing politics has become. DeJear asked her supporters to recognize the good in others with whom they disagree and seek some common ground.
“Treat people the same way you would if you were welcoming them into your home, even when it’s hard,” DeJear said, “because our distance only does one thing: allow others to infiltrate our relationships and wedge us against each other and push us farther and farther apart. We are stronger together.”
In other political news, Iowa Republican Party chairman Jeff Kaufman has been selected to lead the committee that recommends the order of state primaries and caucuses in the next presidential election. Kaufmann has been a staunch defender of having Iowa’s Caucuses be the lead off event in the presidential nominating process.
Today, former Iowa Democratic Party chairman Troy Price starts his new job as executive director of the New Hampshire Democratic Party. Party leaders from that state say one of his tasks will be lobbying to keep New Hampshire’s Primary first in the nation. Price resigned as Iowa Democratic Party chairman shortly after technology failures led to delayed reporting of the 2020 Iowa Caucus results.