we also expect to hear from iowa governor terry branstad. we saw him enter the room just a minute ago, as well as senator chuck grassley. he is also in the audience tonight. senator ted cruz is excited to talk about the government shutdown, other issues facing the country and the republican party. the roomarently not in yet, but here at the convention center doing some photo opportunities and speaking with some of the folks outside the room before he comes in to make his remarks. we should be hearing from him and others shortly. >> man have your attention please? we are going to get the program started. please make it to your seats. we are being broadcast on c-span tonight, so we do want to get the program rolling. everyone moved to your seats. we will get started. the senator is on his way in. let's get this grand old party started tonight. [applause] my name is david fisher. i'm the cochairman of the republican party of iowa. i'm sure you all understand that we have to get things going tonight, because the last time somebody offered senato

other speakers included terry branstad and senator chuck grassley. this is part of the road to the white house coverage. it is about an hour and 40 minutes. >> thank you. i'm only going to use half of my time and yield the other half to my colleague senator cruz. you don't know how long i was given, do you. i would not have thought of this except it was that i run and then i do. tomorrow morning, if any of you are going to be in the race for the cure and you don't run any faster than 11 minute miles, i would like to have you run with me, if you would. and come up afterwards and tell me who you are and where we will meet there. there will be about 25,000 people in that run. all, usually somebody says he needs no introduction. that is why i stood here. you introduce me. thank you very much for your kind words. and thank you to all of you for giving me an opportunity to serve you and the united states senate. it is quite a privilege not only to be in a sentence but more of a privilege to represent good people like you. it is good to be here among friend

other speakers at tonight's inner -- dinner includes iowa governor terry branstad and iowa senator chuck grassley. >> i wouldn't have thought of -- tomorrow morning, if any of you are going to be in the race for the cure, and you don't run any faster than 11 minute mile, i would like to have you run with me if you would. 9:00 on capitol hill. and come up afterwards and tell me who you are and where we will meet there, because there'll be about 25,000 people in that run. all, usually, somebody says he needs no introduction. so that's why i stood here. and you introduce me. thank you so much for your kind words. and thanks to all of you for giving me an opportunity to serve you and the united states senate heard it is quite a privilege not only to be in senate, the morbid or alleged to even represent good people like you. coming from the trenches in washington, is good to be here among friends and iowans. iowansood to be among even if they aren't your friends. saying thatfor washington is an island surrounded by reality. it is a very true statement. energy and your support, we are going to

as your lieutenant governor and to work with my partner, governor gray -- covered -- governor terry branstad. everyone understands here tonight that iowa families are better off when they can provide for themselves and not be dependent on government. governments job is not to create more red tape. we need to eliminate barriers and get out of the way and that starts with ensuring that iowans who want to find a job are able to do that, by creating an environment where business and entrepreneurs can do what they do best. and that is create and innovate. and i want you to know that governor branstad and i and the legislature are focusing every day on creating an environment that is conducive to job creation. this year in fact, i'm proud to say that we set a record of more people working in iowa than any other time in our state's history. completely erasing the job losses of the culver administration and the democrat- controlled house and iowa senate. yes, we need to acknowledge that. we have work to do but we are at a great place [applause] the most encouraging part of the economic growth that w

we'll hear from iowa senator chuck grassley and governor terry branstad. it's scheduled to get under way 8:00 p.m. eastern. this will be senator cruz's third appearance in iowa in the last three months. we've got a preview of tonight's speech with political reporter in des moines. >> jennifer jacobs covers iowa politics for the des moines register. you wrote this morning this will be senator ted cruz's third appearance in ohio -- iowa in the that's three months. >> it is interesting for someone from the state of texas to be in iowa. he said he's here to energize the american people. he feel his role is larger than just the state of texas. he wants to energize the grassroots to take back the country. any time a politician comes to iowa, they've always suspicions that he is planning to run for president. >> he's speaking at the reagan dinner for the iowa republican party. is he trying to broaden that deal beyond the grassroots but to mainstream republicans? >> would think so. except our party is divided here in iowa now. lately, it's only that most conservat

. >> terry branstad falls closer into moderate republican, pragmatic practical republican. those people here in iowa are not necessarily excited to see ted cruz. they are the only ones in doubter's camp, the activists are excited to see him. they have a crowd of 600 people for an off political year for the reagan dinner they are hosting tonight. on the flip side, the other group that are welcoming him here are democrats. they just put out a memo, all five the party committees charged with electing get democrats essentially saying ted cruz has been the face of the republican party here in iowa and especially after the shutdown, that's something they think will again fit their candidates, it will let democrats run against cruz instead of running against a democrat governing in a different way. >> ted cruz has not been in office a year. he's always ever elusive when it comes to answering the question of what his goal is for 2016 or what really is in his heart. list this is the third trip and hasn't been in office a year. >> right, he's getting started with this very early and

michael was the policy adviser for governor terry branstad and lt. governor reynolds of the state of iowa. before joining governor branstad's staff, michael worked as an attorney private practice in his hometown of davenport iowa where he represented individuals, businesses and medical professionals throughout iowa and illinois. before practicing as an attorney he was a consultant in chicago. michael learned his account in accounting and master's and accounting and business taxation from the university of iowa and his law degree from treat university school law to the >> thank you. good morning everybody. how are we doing? are you still awake? good. are you happy the government is no longer shut down? questionable? okay. we have about an hour this morning and a panel of really good people. so i think we are going to try to keep this fairly low key conversational and informal. so not a whole lot of standing of here and talking and you. we are going to do a couple minutes each and give you a high level overview and then we will get into more of the dia

i worked for the governor, terry branstad. a long serving governor who never ever is going to go for a ban on big gulps. not happening. iowa is the purplest of states but that is not going to happen. how do we engage iowans in their communities, neighborhoods, businesses? we worked with our largest health insurer, our largest grocer. our public universities and we started saying what are ways that we can approach the health of our populations? we did it through two ways. one would be blue zones and the other would be the healthiest state initiative and healthy state walks. let me tell you why that is important, though. iowa, when we came in. like i said, i look at problems in an annoying way. we knew healthcare reform was on the horizon. governor branstad, what we had to do is kind of like bob fagan, get an idea for what we faced as a state. so we said ok. we need to look at the people. people are taxpayers. taxpayers fund everything we do. so first, where are we going as a state? well, we're one of eight states in the nation

. >> i'm guessing ted cruz better not be expecting a terry branstad endorsement anytime soon. cruz headlines the reagan dinner being thrown by the republican party of iowa. if you don't have a ticket, you're out of luck. officials say they're sold out. we sent somebody there to track mr. cruz down. our casey is live for us in des moines. casey, he's got quite a packed schedule. and it is a very conservative schedule politically. tell us about it. >> reporter: absolutely. he is, as you said, doing the dinner tonight, the reagan dinner, in des moines. and then he's going to go straight from there, possibly leaving with steve king to go to king's annual colonel bud day pheasant hunt out in western iowa. it's a tiny town called akron. the two will hunt pheasant in the morning, and then there's a lunch scheduled in the afternoon in le mars. so he's really focusing on the activist crowd here in iowa. and that's the group that's really excited about him at this point. and it's interesting, actually, not everyone who we're used to seeing in the iowa gop is going to be attending the di

this is what the governor of iowa had to say, terry branstad, not exactly complimentary. senator cruz will go there this week. he says he's a bright young guy, just one of 100 members of the senate, we should hear from all view points but leadership of this country is coming from the governors and the states not from washington, d.c., and i don't think one freshman senator can turn this all around. what do you make of the mixed reception ted cruz getting a rock star reception in his home state but not by governor branstad? >> he's become a lightning rod. if you're a conservative tea party base, you love ted cruz. there was an nbc/"wall street journal" poll that came out two weeks ago showing he has sky-high numbers among tea party folks. among everyone else he isn't that popular. there is an a division even inside the republican party on how these tea party folks love him, folks who are nontea party republicans don't, so you see that divide. i know in this virginia governor's race that's right by here in northern virginia, terry mcauliffe is running radio ads comparing ke

i worked for the governor, terry branstad. a long serving governor who never ever is going to go for a ban on big gulps. not happening. iowa is the purplest of states but that is not going to happen. how do we engage iowans in their communities, neighborhoods, businesses? we worked with our largest health insurer, our largest grocer, our public universities and associations, and we started saying what are ways that we can approach the health of our populations? we did it through two ways. one would be blue zones and the other would be the healthiest state initiative and healthy state walks. let me tell you why that is important, though. iowa, when we came in. like i said, i look at problems in an annoying way. we knew healthcare reform was on the horizon. governor branstad, what we had to do is kind of like bob fagan, get an idea for what we faced as a state. so we said ok. we need to look at the people. people are taxpayers. taxpayers fund everything we do. so first, where are we going as a state? well, we're one of eight sta