(Radio Iowa) – The Democratic presidential candidate who won the 2020 Iowa Caucuses says he’s not running for anything, but Pete Buttigieg is offering advice for how the party should respond to the Trump presidency. Buttigieg spoke in Cedar Rapids yesterday (Tuesday). “Anyone can come to Iowa just before an election’s coming up,” Buttigieg said and the crowd laughed. “I wanted to make sure I had a chance to talk with the people I got to know five or six years ago and people I’m seeing for the very first time.”

Buttigieg, a former officer in the Navy, spoke at forum hosted by the VoteVets Action Fund and answered questions from the crowd for about an hour. Buttigieg says Democrats have to talk about what they’re for rather than focusing on what Trump policies they oppose. “We are being tested on nothing less than whether the United States of America is, in fact, the freedom loving people that we know ourselves to be.

Pete Buttigieg (file photo)

“Let us meet that test,” Buttigieg said. “…What made America and makes American great is not something that we dust off by saying the word ‘Again.’ What makes America great is its ability to wrestle with its darkest demons and come out stronger and better for it.”

Buttigieg is the third high-profile Democrat to visit Iowa this year. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders spoke to a crowd in Iowa City in February and in march Minnesota Governor Tim Walz held a town hall in Des Moines. Iowa Republican Party chairman Jeff Kaufmann says President Trump is delivering delivering results, while Democrats like Buttigieg offer empty rhetoric.