A large crowd welcomed Vice President Mike Pence to the capital of Iowa on a cold afternoon Thursday. 

With the election only five days away, Pence came to Des Moines to encourage Iowans to vote. Another goal of the rally was to tell people to vote in the other elections as well as the presidential race. In particular, he wanted the crowd to vote Sen. Joni Ernst back into the U.S. Senate for another six years and thanked those who have served their country.

“I’m proud to report to you as your vice president, and as the proud father of a United States Marine,” Pence said. “That thanks to our strong supporters and allies in Congress, we have finally given our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guard the resources they need to defend this nation.”

After the introduction, the first thing Pence did was describe the state America was in under the Obama administration. 

“Four years ago, we inherited a Military that was hollowed out by devastating budget cuts, an economy that was struggling to break out of the slowest recovery since the Great Depression, terrorism was on the rise around the world and we witnessed an assault on our most cherished values,” Pence said. “But in just three short years we rebuilt our Military, strengthened the economy and we secure our borders, and stood for liberty and the Constitution of the United States.”

Pence went into more depth on the specific issues, he talked about what Trump has done for the Military, such as increasing their budget and making them stronger. Pence also talked about the economic growth that has happened under the Trump administration. He mentioned the gross domestic product (GDP) skyrocketing and unemployment rates going down and so on. 

During his speech Pence said “with the new GDP numbers posted this morning, the economy grew more than 33 percent in the third quarter shattering any previous American record.” 

Along with talking about the Military and the economy, Pence also hit on another very big issue, abortion. He said Trump is the most pro-life president there has ever been and if we want this to continue, we need to reelect Trump back into office for four more years. 

However, Pence wasn’t the only star at this rally. He was joined by several other Iowa politicians, including Sen. Joni Ernst, Gov. Kim Reynolds and Sen. Chuck Grassley. 

“Now the choice is clear folks, we can take the path of prosperity and economic freedom and opportunity,” Ernst said. “Or we can end up going down the separate path full of pitfalls that the radical left wants to see us on, extremer abortions, radical environmental ideas that kill Iowa jobs, rolling back our Second Amendments rights.”

There were also some newcomers such as Reps. Ashley Hinson and David Young. Throughout the night, four more years was chanted in support of Trump and six more years in support of Ernst. 

“What I love about President Trump and this administration is that this is an administration that actually has had accomplishments,” Reynolds said. “They have built the most robust economy of our lifetime, lowest unemployment on record and they have secured our borders and got people the jobs they need and have appointed over 200 judges, three of them being Supreme Court judges.”

The people in the crowd were enthusiastic about everything the politicians had to say, often there were cheers of agreements.

“Iowans are safe and do the right things and that is why we have been able to keep over 85 percent of our workforce working and business open, and it is how we are getting our children back into the building, back into the school with over 75 percent of our schools open five days a week,” Reynolds said. “And it is why our fiscal health is strong, we closed fiscal year 20 with a balanced budget and cash reserves full and a surplus of 305 million dollars.”

Biker Mark, a pastor from Des Moines, attended the rally and said he missed the first Trump event and didn’t want to miss another one. He also said he wants Trump to win because he has the attitude of a Biker (as in his name, not an actual biker), a getter done attitude and he likes that. Other people who attended the rally said Trump is very pro-American and they really support that idea. The people at the rally want to be put first by a president, or they don’t think Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden would do well in the position of president.

“We are just five days away from a great victory all across Iowa and all across America,” Pence said. “And the road to victory goes straight through the Hawkeye State. When the time comes on November 3 you need to show that nation that Iowa is a Trump country.”