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CLEAR LAKE, Iowa — The annual Wing Ding Dinner here delivered on its name Friday night, with no shortage of thrown elbows and plenty of baked ones, as four Democratic presidential candidates tried to excite a crowd of Iowa voters by attacking their Republican counterparts.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, the first to speak at the fund-raiser, sought to portray the entire Republican field as a monolith, in agreement with Donald J. Trump, who has made controversial comments recently about women and immigrants.

“Most of the attention these days is on a certain flamboyant front-runner,” she said. “The other Republican candidates are Trump without the pizazz and the hair.”

Mrs. Clinton criticized Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida for their records on unions, college education and abortion. “I’m so tired of Republicans shaming and blaming women,” she said, delighting the crowd.

The audience sent off Mrs. Clinton, whose voice gave out at one point during her fiery speech, with a standing ovation and chants of “Hillary!”

Next up: Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, whose liberal message is gaining traction in Iowa and New Hampshire. Mr. Sanders took aim at corporate greed, Wall Street and the media. He also praised the thousands of supporters who have attended his rallies.

“The media often asks me why it is we seem to be generating so much enthusiasm,” Mr. Sanders said. “My answer is that the American people are sick and tired with establishment politics, with establishment economics and with the establishment media.”

The event, held at the famed Surf Ballroom where Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper performed before being killed when their plane went down on a frozen runway in nearby Mason City, is one of this early nominating state’s quirky must stops for Democrats wooing caucus goers and party activists.

On Saturday, Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Sanders will encounter another tradition: the sprawling Iowa State Fair in Des Moines. On Thursday, former Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland delivered his “soapbox” address at the fair and sampled local delicacies, including brisket on a stick, wrapped in bacon.

By the time Mr. O’Malley took the stage here on Friday, after Mr. Sanders’s liberal roar, he had to concede that he was “not the only candidate for president who holds progressive values.”

But he reminded the the crowd — the biggest in years for the Wing Ding, organizers said — of his résumé as the mayor of Baltimore and as the governor. “I am the only candidate for president with 15 years of executive experience,” he said. “Action, not words.”

As far as words go, Lincoln Chafee, the former mayor, senator and governor from Rhode Island, had some choice ones for Mr. Bush and his recent comments about the Iraq War.

“What kind of neocon Kool-Aid is this man drinking?” Mr. Chafee said.

But it was Mrs. Clinton who took the most direct aim at Mr. Bush and the Republican field. After praising the baked chicken wings that give the event its name, she pivoted to defending President Obama’s Iran nuclear deal. Mrs. Clinton even took time to poke some fun at herself over the latest controversy over her use of private email as secretary of state.

“You may have seen that I recently launched a Snapchat account,” Mrs. Clinton said. “I love it. Those messages disappear all by themselves.”

For the most part, the four candidates kept their speeches focused on popular Democratic causes like lifting the middle class, alleviating income inequality and undoing the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision on campaign spending, rather than criticizing each other. But one of the closing lines in Mr. Chafee’s speech, as the crowd slowly meandered to the parking lot, stood out.

“What I’m most proud of in those three decades in public service is that I never had any scandals,” he said, adding, “That’s hard in Rhode Island, by the way.”