What Iowan Deidre DeJear learned inside the last Harris campaign

'When you see a train moving, and it's going someplace good, you might as well hop on,' DeJear said

Deidre DeJear, the 2022 Democratic candidate for governor in Iowa, served as then Sen. Kamala Harris’s Iowa campaign chair in 2019. Photo By Douglas Burns

A top Iowa advisor to Vice President Kamala Harris says the Oval Office candidate's proven coalition-building skills are on full display as Harris races toward the Democratic National Convention this month and the final sprint to Election Day.

Deidre DeJear, who served as Harris's Iowa campaign chair in 2019, when Harris, then a U.S. senator from California, sought the nomination, said the nation is seeing what she witnessed for months as the party coalesces around Harris, and the presumptive Democratic nominee builds what DeJear thinks can be an electoral juggernaut.

"When you see a train moving, and it's going someplace good, you might as well hop on," DeJear said in an interview with The Iowa Mercury. "Kamala Harris has a decorated history in serving our country. She has broken a great deal of barriers. Because she is battle tested in doing such, we know she is going to go that for us."

DeJear said the current political moment is a test to democracy itself. Harris is the candidate for the moment, DeJear said.

"She's been tested in this space," DeJear, a Des Moines Democrat, said. "She's been battle-tested time and time again, and she's committed and consistent."

Added DeJear, "When she speaks, she talks about all of us being a part of this moment. I'm excited about what she's been able to do."

Harris knows and understands Iowa, DeJear said, noting that Harris has visited Iowa twice as the vice president in addition to her schedule during the Iowa caucuses campaign.

"She has stayed connected to Iowa as I have tried to keep her and her team, and the Biden administration, connected to this state," DeJear said, adding that Harris's visits were tied to reproductive rights and maternal health care.

Expect to see coalition building and grassroots engagement from Harris of a surpassing quality, said DeJear, the 2022 Democratic nominee for governor of Iowa.

"She likes to meet people where they are and not necessarily going to the places where we are labeling the most reliable voters all the time," DeJear said. "She wants to connect with the most reliable voters, and her campaign has done that historically through everything that's she run for. But she's also connected with the folks who need a little bit of a boost to understand that their vote matters and their vote counts —  the folks who aren't always getting the positive, revering messages about engaging in the processes."

DeJear spent days and days with Harris in Iowa.

There are two moments that particularly stand out, she said.

First, Harris’s appearance at the 2019 Liberty and Justice dinner at Wells-Fargo Arena, DeJear said.

"She spent a great deal of time preparing for that speech, but some of that time and preparation was spent on the ground hanging out with regular, everyday Iowans,” DeJear said. “When she got on that stage she delivered the most amazing speech I've ever heard her deliver and the theme was justice is on the ballot."

That's still the case.

Then, there was the the question of whether Harris was spending enough time in Iowa.

Harris famously made a comment about moving to Iowa -- and then did it. (The one liner led to a popular Raygun shirt.)

"It was just a really, really good time," DeJear said. "That just shows, again, her commitment to people. She's going to go above and beyond, and the reason is she's never been allowed do less."

(Douglas Burns, a fourth-generation Iowa journalist from Carroll, is a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Read dozens of the most talented writers in Iowa in just one place. The Iowa Writers' Collaborative spans the full state. It’s one of the biggest things going in Iowa journalism and writing now — and you don’t want to miss. This collaborative is — as the outstanding Quad Cities journalist Ed Tibbetts says — YOUR SUNDAY IOWA newspaper. )