Presidential candidate Mitt Romney promised “big” things for Iowans if they elect him for president.

In Iowa, a state that was called the “epicenter of politics” by Congressman Steve King and a “battleground state” by Sen. Chuck Grassley, Romney sought voter support by visiting Ames.

Romney gave his speech Friday, Oct. 26, at Kinzler Construction Services, a site on West Lincoln Way.

According to a GOP source, Romney’s appearance drew a crowd of approximately 3,500 people, despite the windy weather that hovered in the 40s.

“This is an election of consequence,” Romney said. “Our campaign is about big things. … America faces a big challenge. … the American people want to see big changes.”

Romney’s speech presented his five point plan of achieving energy independence, providing citizens training they needed from state run programs, tailoring America’s trading partnerships, cutting down on the nation’s debt and encouraging small businesses.

Included in Romney’s economic speech were promises to raise the economy by 4 percent — an increase of 2 percent from last quarter, achieve North American energy independence by 2020, build better trade relations with Latin America, create 12 million new jobs, eliminate unnecessary government programs and put America “back on the path to prosperity” in order to enable it to remain a strong, responsible leader of the free world.

Romney also expressed a desire to find common ground between Democrats and Republicans.

“I know it because I’ve seen it,” Romney said. “Good Democrats can come together with good Republicans to solve big problems. What we need is leadership to make that happen.”

In addition to his economic plan, Romney brought up President Barack Obama several times.

“The president’s campaign slogan is this: ‘Forward,'” Romney said. “But to 23 million Americans struggling to find a good job these last four years it feels… a lot more like backwards.”

His comments aimed at his opponent did not go unnoticed.

“He went a little bit more on the attack than he has been recently,” said Kyle Etzel, president of the College Republicans at Iowa State. “He called out the president on his economic policies and foreign policy, which has been in the news a lot recently; so I think that was good.” 

Democrats were also present to listen to Romney’s proposals.

“Gov. Romney’s plan is in the same vain that a lot of the policies prior to the Obama administration, and those are policies that don’t really get the job done,” said Abhishek Vemuri, president of the ISU Democrats on campus.

Across the street from the event, Progress Iowa hosted a protest in which participants wore Romney masks and said Romney had flip-flopped sides on several issues throughout the course of his campaign.

Romney’s speech lasted approximately 20 minutes.

At the conclusion of his speech, Romney said his belief that Iowa would be the place that would choose the next president: “I’m counting on Iowa.”