Alex Wagner

And so from my perspective, I think that having a nominee who has been able to run against the establishment to say that actually we are going to talk with voters in a way that we believe reflects a way that actually wins on the ground.

We've been investing in organizing very early.

And I will also tell you the message that we've been running on, which is about the economy.

It is about the corruption.

It is about a new vision for the future of small town and rural Iowa.

And I hope we can get to some of that in a minute.

That is resonating with a lot of people.

When we turned in our nominating petitions, this is about a month and a half ago now, 15% of our signers were registered independents and Republicans.

We had signers from all 99 counties and like triple the number of signatures that you needed from folks to legally get on the ballot.

I was also the first candidate in the race, Democrat or Republican, to get a grassroots contribution from Iowans in all 99 counties.

Our 99th county was Wright County, which is up in North Iowa.

25 bucks from a guy named Gary.

Gary gets us to magic number 99.

So we're like, we're thrilled.

Get Gary on the phone so I can say thank you.

and learn about why he's supporting the campaign.

Gary tells me he's a retired small-town lawyer.

He's excited to see a new generation step up.

He's president of his local school board, loves my passion for public education.

He's a Vietnam veteran.