A former Obama administration official, Dave Harden, will discuss national security and the presidential race at Iowa State at 5:30 p.m. Monday in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union.

Harden serves as the managing director for the Georgetown Strategy Group working in the realm of international development. He worked under the Obama administration, serving as assistant administrator for the United States Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance.

Harden recently endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination. His lecture is as a campaign surrogate and is part of the Campaign Series in 2020 the Committee on Lectures is hosting. 

Director of the Lectures Program, Amanda Knief, said the committee on lectures is in no way endorsing any candidates running or party.

“Biden’s campaign came to us and asked us if he could speak, and we were happy to have him come because we are happy to work with any campaign come on to campus,” Knief said.

It will be a classic lecture style with questions from the audience after and is expected to run for an hour. It is open to the public and will be free.

Knief said the goal of these lectures is to make them accessible to all Iowa State students.

“We think it is really important that students get as many opportunities as possible […] to engage with candidates and their surrogates and to be able to ask questions about how candidates would handle issues that are important to students,” Knief said. “We think that […] part of the committee on lectures’ responsibility is to facilitate that to make sure we make it as easy as possible for students to have access to as many candidates as we can.” 

Iowa’s caucuses are scheduled for Feb. 3, though national security has gained recent prominence in the Democratic primary. The subject was extensively discussed in the January Presidential Debate in Des Moines.

“I think this is a really important topic in light of the events with Iran, and some of the things that have been going on with China,” Knief said. “National security is an issue because of our involvement in several conflicts around the globe. I think students should be interested and engaged with it and how whoever elected to the presidency in November will affect the U.S.”