A stop at the Iowa State Fair is a "no miss" event for presidential candidates who are courting Iowa voters. Iowa holds the first in the nation caucuses in 2020.
Today Pete Buttigieg got his 20 minutes on the Des Moines Register Soapbox Tuesday afternoon. He left time for questions from the audience at the end. One person asked him about cancer. Buttigieg replied that more money needs to be invested to fight cancer. "Far too many Americans are one diagnosis away from total ruin...we gotta get coverage for everybody," he said.
He was asked if he had any advice for teens entering college. His answer was, "Please vote."
On the issue of abortion he said, "The right to choose could be gone by 2030 if we don't act. I will not let that happen as President."
On mass incarceration: "We need to cut incarceration by half in this country. We are creating a whole generation of kids who experienced the incarceration of a parent," Buttigieg said. He added that, "We've got to end private prisons."
On election security: "This is so important. If they take our democracy away from us by the time you reach for your gun it's too late." Buttigieg went on to say he wants to use cyber, diplomatic and economic responses to create such a penalty that Russia or any other country wouldn't even think of doing it next time around.
On fair food: Buttigieg asked the crowd what he should try. Some of the suggestions were pork chops, turkey leg, beer and fried oreos.
He ended his remarks by telling the crowd, "Let's win the era together."
Watch the video here: