DES MOINES, Iowa — Theresa Menough stopped former Vice President Joseph R. Biden in his tracks here at the Iowa State Fair on Thursday to ask for a hug and she got it.

Ms. Menough said she did the same thing during one of former President Barack Obama’s pilgrimages to the fairgrounds and hopes that her hug proves to be good luck for Mr. Biden, who is running as a 76-year-old defender of the Obama legacy.

“I thought he started off a little weak,” the 64-year-old said of Mr. Biden’s 2020 candidacy. “But he is coming back strong. He just has to keep the momentum going.”

Buoyed by polls showing he has regained his footing after some early struggles, Mr. Biden parachuted into the Iowa State Fair to take part in the Des Moines Register Soapbox, which over the coming days will provide over 20 candidates with the chance to pitch their message to voters and field their questions.

On stage, Mr. Biden vowed to reverse the “God-awful” Trump tax cuts, to close tax “loopholes” for the wealthy and to raise corporate taxes to help pay for government programs for middle-class, which he described as the “backbone of this country.”

Distancing himself from some of his primary rivals, Mr. Biden warned the push for a “Medicare for All” health care system would lead to higher taxes on the middle-class and cost taxpayers far more than his $750 billion proposal to expand Obamacare with a public option.

He also took on his critics.

“On one side they make: ‘Well, Biden’s kind of been around too long.’ The other side is: ‘Biden’s naive.’ Well, I don’t know I’ve been around a long time and you’d think being around a long time you’d learn a little something, you know,” Mr. Biden said, sparking laughs from the crowd. “The thing I’ve learned is that the American people after four years, after three years already of this guy, have decided that a lot of what he’s talking about is hokum.”

Mr. Biden appears to have regained some of his footing after stumbling in the first Democratic debate in Miami.

Democrats like Ms. Menough were cheering him on this week when he delivered a blistering critique of Mr. Trump following the mass shootings in Texas and Ohio, blaming the Republican for inciting white supremacist hatred and failing to show real leadership.

Mr. Biden told reporters Thursday if he is elected president he is confident he could pass gun control legislation because Democrats now control the House and could pick up seats in the Senate next year.

Plus, he claimed, “you have a majority of the members of the NRA understanding that we should do something about this.”

A Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday showed Mr. Biden leads the 2020 field among likely Democratic Iowa caucusgoers with Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts nabbing second place.

The survey found that Mr. Biden was the top choice of 28% of likely caucusgoers, and was followed by Ms. Warren at 19%, Sen. Kamala D. Harris of California at 11%, Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont at 9%. and Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, at 8%.

The Iowa State Fair hasn’t always been good to Mr. Biden. His bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1998 imploded after a debate here in which Mr. Biden plagiarized passages from a speech by Neil Kinnock, the leader of Britain’s Labor Party.

More than three decades later, Mr. Biden is well-liked in Iowa, where voters say they’re attracted to his candidacy because of his experience, his ties to Mr. Obama and their belief, at least at the moment, that he could unite the country and be the best candidate in the field to take out Mr. Trump.

“I think he can win if he gets through the Democratic primary,” said Bill Friedricks, 61, of West Des Moines. “I think right now the party has been pushed to the left and I think he has to continue to hammering the point that he can win the general election.”

The appearance, however, here didn’t go off without a hitch. As he made his way around the fairgrounds, Mr. Biden briefly mixed it up with a Trump supporter who accused the balding Democrat of misquoting the president.

The lineup of contenders speaking at the Soapbox on Friday features former Housing Secretary Julian Castro, businessman Andrew Yang, former Rep. John Delaney of Maryland, New Age guru Marianne Williamson, and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii.

Gov. Steve Bullock of Montana opened up things here Thursday and got some laughs when he assured voters he wasn’t here to remind them that his great-great-grandparents called Iowa home and that his mother was born in the state.

“We gather to make sure Donald Trump is a one-term president,” Mr. Bullock said.

“Never in my life did I think that I would utter that we have a president that gives aid and comfort to our enemies abroad and incites those who fight against decency at home,” he said. “The lies, the misstatements, that divide us by race, gender and geography, we expect more out of preschoolers now than we do the president of the United States.”

Afterward, Mr. Friedricks said Mr. Biden and Mr. Bullock delivered similar messages, describing them both as attractive “moderates.”

“I think they both understand how politics works and they aren’t so driven by ideology,” he said.

Steve Vreza, 71, a native Iowan who made the trip from Pennsylvania, said Mr. Biden will have his support as long as he maintains his polling lead.

“We’ve got to beat Trump, I don’t care who it is,” Mr. Vreza said. “I will go with whoever is leading [in the polls] at the time. When I vote in the primary if Elizabeth Warren is way ahead of Joe compared to Trump, I will vote for her.”

With a throng of national media and supporters in tow, Mr. Biden bought an ice cream coated in chocolate and vendors urged him to “come get a beer!” and “come get a turkey leg.”

After his speech, Mr. Biden dipped in “Steer N’ Stein” to sign autographs and pose for photographs with fairgoers, and then made his way toward the exits as curious onlookers marveled at the scene.

“I guess that is what it is like to be famous,” a woman said.

Sunny Kramer, of Des Moines, shouted out “Go Biden!”

“I love him,” Ms. Kramer.

“He is going to be a lot like Obama, but he is going to change it a little bit. He has to do it. But I love him,” the 68-year-old said. “We need to get someone better in the White House than we have now. I didn’t vote for that [expletive].”

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