17 candidates, crowd of 11,000+ expected at Saturday's Steak Fry

[brooklynite]

Radio Iowa

It could wind up being among the largest political events in state history. More than 11,000 tickets have been sold for the Polk County Democratic Party’s Steak Fry tomorrow in Des Moines.

“When you have this many campaigns and they’re all trying to beat the yardstick from ’03 and then Barack Obama in 2007, you know, it just gets bigger,” Polk County Democratic Party chairman Sean Bagniewski told Radio Iowa.

Bagniewski mentioned two milestones. In 2003, the annual steak fry Senator Tom Harkin hosted featured all the Democratic presidential candidates, along with keynoter Bill Clinton and a crowd of more than 10-thousand. In 2007, Obama held a rally with his supporters BEFORE the Harkin Steak Fry. They marched, as a group, onto the Steak Fry grounds in Indianola.

“Let’s go in that Steak Fry and make a lot of noise,” then-Senator Obama said.

Ten of the 2020 candidates are holding rallies Saturday morning and eight candidates plan to march in with their supporters.

“If I were a casual observer, I would think the most important part of the steak fry was the speeches and the speeches are certainly important,” Bagniewski said, “but the real mile marker for the steak fry is going to be the rallies in the morning and then the marches into the event.”

Flying out this evening...

[Bigredhunk]

1. Go Dems!

My sister can get free tix, but she's not going b/c she doesn't like crowds.

[brooklynite]

2. Based on prior attendance, it's a large crowd, but not squeezed together

She can stay on the periphery and still see everything.

[IcyPeas]

3. is Cory Booker attending?

what's he gonna eat?

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(he's a vegan)

[brooklynite]

4. There's a vegan option (we're Democrats...)