Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., delivered a message of unity Saturday at a crowded Kum & Go Theater in Des Moines.

In his first trip to Iowa since announcing his presidential campaign, the senator, on his second day of campaigning in Iowa, had a hoarse voice, yet aimed for an uplifting message. Unless asked by members of the audience, Booker avoided mentioning the president.

A guest who identified herself as a sophomore at Simpson College majoring in political science said Iowa college students see a lot of presidential candidates but not a lot of solutions. She asked what Booker would do about the problem many young people are facing with regards to student loan debt.

“… it feels like presidential candidates come to Iowa, do some photo ops on campuses and then forget about students and that age block until the next election,” she said.

Booker said he believes people should be able to refinance student loans and all community colleges should be free. He also noted he will be “chasing down” high school and college students to earn their votes, noting that millennials and Generation Z will be the largest group eligible to vote in the 2020 election.

Booker touched on themes of intersectionality in his speech, saying the 92-year-old head of the Fair Housing Council who helped his family enter into a largely segregated community in the late 1960s is now representing same-sex couples, Muslim families and Americans with disabilities because “injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere, we’re all in this together.”

“It is not enough in life to say I’m not a racist,” Booker said. “If racism exists, you need to be anti-racist. It is not enough to say I’m not an antisemite, you need to be actively working against antisemitism, because when dignity is denied to one American it is an assault on all Americans.”

Garland Williams, who came from Omaha to hear Booker speak, said he thought Booker “truly spoke from his heart.” Williams said he will support the Democratic nominee, whomever it is — even if he doesn’t personally agree with all of their positions — because he said the Democratic party “supports the viewpoints of most black and brown Americans.”

The junior senator from New Jersey noted his connections to Iowa, with members of his family in the audience. Booker said his roots are “right here in Des Moines,” his grandmother having been born and raised in the city.

In response to a question from a retired surgeon in the audience about health care, Booker said he supports “Medicare for All” but acknowledged the difficulty in accomplishing that while Democrats remain in the minority in the U.S. Senate.

Booker touted his executive experience as a standout factor among the Democratic primary candidates, who mostly have only legislative experience in either the U.S. House or Senate. When he spoke of his experience as mayor, Booker said Newark had a tremendous problem with businesses closing and discussed how he came up with strategies to get people to come back to the city.

He noted that he involved labor in the process of getting investors to return to Newark, New Jersey, and stated that when he got developers to come build in the city, he also got unions to join them at the table to discuss how to accomplish their goals.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, has also been mentioned recently as a potential presidential candidate by Politico’s Daniel Strauss and in recent weeks conducted a tour of early voting primary states, ostensibly to discuss the “dignity of work.”

Booker used nearly that exact phrase, saying that “there is a dignity in all work and career professions,” showing that labor issues may have an increased priority this election cycle.

Kathryn Lappegard of Des Moines, who brought her granddaughter to the event, commented that she has backed Booker for years because “he’s very smart and very accomplished.”

Lappegard said she felt that Booker cares about the working man and the middle class and thinks that he’s a fighter, but she also likes his message of reconciliation. Lappegard said she believes any Democrat can beat President Donald Trump and would vote for any Democrat who is presently in the race in the 2020 election.

During his speech, Booker announced to applause that “whoever ends up being the nominee, we will all support that nominee.”