Rep. John Delaney jumped in on the RAGBRAI action today, taking off this morning from Indianola. After he concludes today’s ride, he’ll head to Indianapolis to speak at the National Urban League conference.
Delaney is riding a rented Trek-bike today as he and his team make the ride. Because of time constraints, they won’t be going all the way from Indianola to Centerville.
“In general, I think physical fitness is incredibly important,” Delaney said. “A lot of our health care costs are driven by people who are not doing the type of preventative care they should be.”
But Delaney explained that his ride today is not really about any part of his campaign, or policy platform.
“I wouldn’t say it’s about health care, doing this; it’s a tremendous Iowa tradition,” Delaney said. “And I’ve really campaigned hard in Iowa, and I want to experience all that Iowa has to offer, and you gotta do RAGBRAI if that’s what you wanna do.”
.@JohnDelaney is all set to head off on his #RAGBRAI route today, leaving from Indianola #IACaucus pic.twitter.com/vNNDl3wiIH
— Josh Cook (@Josh_Cook_) July 24, 2019
Delaney has taken a liking to Iowa, a natural by-product of spending so much time in the state. He’s well-past completing the 99-county-tour, and despite low polling numbers, Delaney is still running a grass-roots campaign across the state, taking part in Iowa adventures any way he can.
“A lot of people riding aren’t even Iowans. I think it’s more about, this is an Iowan tradition, and I’m really running a grass-roots campaign,” Delaney said. “This is about as grass-roots of an event as you can get; I mean you’ve got people camping in neighbors’ yards and getting out there to ride all day.”
Delaney joined John Hickenlooper as the only two candidates to ride in RAGBRAI. After today, he’ll be out of the state for a while before returning on August 4 for meet-and-greet events in Tabor, Mt. Ayr and Creston.
by Josh Cook
Posted 7/24/19
Congrats to Delaney for participating in RAGBRAI. I hope he had many productive interactions with the riders. Those of us who have done RAGBRAI realize what a great event it is –
1. An amusement park experience for kids and adults alike.
2. Much like life, an event that is what you make of it.
3. Visiting towns where they attempt to make each day a Chamber of Commerce Day.
4. And those towns keep coming up every 5 to 15 (?) miles!