2020 Political Buttons Part 5: Iowa Steak Fry

Had an amazing trip to Iowa for the Polk County Democrats Steak Fry event in September. APIC member hosted a couple Oregonians. The trip included a visit to the Iowa State Capitol building, a Star Trek Museum in Riverside, Iowa and many, many visits to campaign offices. Of course, you don't get APIC members in the same room without getting into buttons. Getting a tour of John's collection was amazing. He collects VOTE materials and Theodore Roosevelt. The wildest thing I saw was VOTE toothpaste. I thought I had seen everything. Here is a commercial from 1968.



The Steak Fry was a fun event. There were loads of signs, stickers and t-shirts to be had. It seemed every campaign had something to offer. Some campaigns had very unique items to offer Steak Fry attendees. One such item came from Michael Bennet's campaign. A foam gavel.

A pretty neat item. I've seen foam fingers and gloves before, but never a foam gavel. Sure to be a sleeper item from the 2019 Iowa Steak Fry. During the parade into Steak Fry Bennet's campaign carried huge gavels with them.

 It is all based a qoute from the Des Moines Register about Bennet pounding truth into the 2020  campaign. The campaign took it and ran with it right to foam gavels. The other items that seem to be making a political comeback it seems are political fans. Warren, Booker, Biden, and Beto all have put out political fans of some kind. I was able to pick up a Beto and Booker fan at the Steak Fry.

Ok, onto the main event. The BUTTONS! Here are my two scans of the buttons I was able to pick up in Iowa.

Adios Trump was picked up at the Castro booth early in the morning. It is a heat sealed cello and has a different union bug than the version you can buy from his online store. The John Delaney pin was picked up at the Des Moines campaign office. I'm a Voter was given out at the Iowa SOS office. There are three Amy Klobuchar pins pictured. Two are from her campaign. The staff told me that the Unidos con Amy were brand new and the Steak Fry was the first event they were giving them out at. That pin and the green Amy pin looked to have been made in Minnesota. The caracature pins were designed by Iowa political cartoonist Brian Duffy. He teamed up the folks behind the UnPresidented Deck and they sold buttons at the Steak Fry. The Kamala pin is also different from the pin of the same design that you can buy from her website. This is an Iowa issued pin with a Des Moines union bug. The Tulsi pin is a standard cello, different from what you were able to purchase from her website early on in the campaign. It also features a different union bug. Veterans for Pete and Caucus for Pete were being given out like candy at Mayor Pete's table.

The special pins in this image are the 'Ask me about Warren' pin and the Cory Booker Bold and Bald pin. The Warren pin has proven to be very popular. It is 3 inches and was given out to volunteers at the Steak Fry. The first one to sell on ebay went for over 150 dollars. I suspect that in the next couple of months the price will come down on this pin as more people that attended the Steak Fry hear about what they think they can get for the pin online. The Cory Booker pin was designed by me for an event he did in Portland in August. Thanks to John Olson and his friend, Cory's driver for the day, he signed this one for me.

There is a far rarer version of the pin that was worn by friends of Barry Greenberg at the 2019 Rose City Comic Con (pictured above). Barry Greenberg is featured in the middle of the pin.

In this photo we had more of the Brian Duffy pins. The 3" Warren pin was given out by staff if they got you to commit to caucus for Warren and you wrote in what town you were going to caucus from. The Bernie pin was from a booth outside Coe College for the LGBTQ+ forum the night before the Steak Fry. The Marianne pins were also from the event at Coe College. These are the same pins that you can find on her website. The Kamala pin was being given out by a Harris Super Volunteer. The Castro pin is a heat sealed cello, which is different from the standard cello you can get from his website. It also features a differnt union bug. The two best pins here have to be the Barnstormers for Pete pin and the Iowa Pete pin. The Barnstormers were given out by a group that are preparing to Barnstrom for Pete in early November.

The final button from the Steak Fry that I was able to get, I only got after I came back home and searched ebay for. The volunteers I ran into were determined to keep this pin. Thankfully, ebay came to the rescue.

I'm pretty sure I was able to grab an item from most of the campaigns during my several days in Iowa. Visiting the different offices and discussing the campaign with the staff was really fun. It was interesting hearing from all the different campaigns they worked on in the last cycle, many while they were still in college.

I will leave you with just two other photos of the items from the Steak Fry. Did you attend? Did you get an item worth showing off?

 A biden sign used during his parade to the stage.

Tulsi Gabbard's campaign had lots of banners at the event.