The Democrat who won the 2020 Iowa Caucuses is returning to the state to headline the Iowa Democratic Party’s biggest fundraiser of the year.
Pete Buttigieg will be the keynote speaker at the party’s Liberty and Justice Celebration July 12 in Altoona. It’s an annual event and has featured Democrats pondering a run for the White House and, for decades, it was a showcase for the party’s presidential field in the run up to the Iowa Caucuses.
Back in 2019, Buttigieg was among 13 presidenial candidates who spoke to a crowd of over 13,000 in Des Moines. “We know that the purpose of the presidency is not the glorification of the president. It is the unification of the people,” Buttigieg said. “That is why we have the office.”
Buttigieg, who served as U.S. Transportation Secretary during the Biden Administration, spoke a VoteVets forum in Cedar Rapids last year and he’s not the only potential 2028 candidate who’s making appearances in the state. Iowa Democrats are asking national party leaders to put their Caucuses back in the lead-off position in the 2028 presidential campaign. National party leaders moved Iowa out of that slot in 2024.
Iowa Republicans held their first-in-the-nation Caucuses in 2024 and are poised to do so again in 2028.