Democratic presidential candidate from Indiana draws huge crowd at Port of Burlington.

Every now and then a political candidate unleashes the drawing power of a rock and roll star, and Pete Buttigieg proved he can pull them in last night at the Port of Burlington.

Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is one of 20-some Democratic candidates running for president in Iowa.

Fans, curious voters and well-wishers formed a line from the east door of the Port, down the stairs and then north around the building, trailing along the riverwalk nearly to the boat ramp.

Sean Manning, Buttigieg's deputy press secretary in Iowa, gave a headcount of 500.

"This is his fourth stop of the day in southeast Iowa — all in counties that went for Obama twice but flipped for Trump in 2016," Manning said.

Des Moines County Democratic chair Tom Courtney said the evening time slot was key.

"This is the first of these we've had at night when everybody can come," Courtney said. "There are a lot of young people here. It's not just old retired people."

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Malia Lee of Little York, Illinois, and her brother Mark of Chicago — and Burlington — were there to check Buttigieg out in case he makes the cut in Iowa next February, in which case they might see him in the Illinois primary.

"We're very impressed by how intelligent he is, and his demeanor," Mark said.

"He's so calm," Malia said.

"And honest," Mark added. "Iowa is very lucky."

"Iowa's caucuses are more personable than Illinois' primary," Malia said.

Christina A. Carter waited patiently in line somewhere between the Port and the boat ramp. Carter grew up in New Hampshire and moved to Burlington about eight years ago after completing a respiratory therapist course at Southeastern Community College, where she now teaches that curriculum.

"I'm interviewing all the candidates to see who stands out the most and who has a sense of leadership," Carter said. "And I want Twitter banned from the Oval Office — no offense to Twitter."

Buttigieg volunteers circulated in the crowd taking slips of paper with questions written on them for the candidate. Carter's friend Peggy Ward of Burlington works in Galesburg as a respiratory therapist and had written down a question for Buttigieg: "What will you do to drive down health care costs?"

It was a popular theme.

Barbara Shivapour of Burlington and her mom, Katie Schultz of West Burlington, were there with their friend Kelly Samberg of Burlington.

"We always try to listen to the different candidates and see what their positions are," Shivapour said.

"My granddaughter already filled me in — she's heard him speak," Schultz added. "I like what he's done in South Bend."

"I want to check the candidates out," Samberg said. "If you're going to vote, you should get information. What I like about Pete is, he can speak intelligently, unlike someone else I can think of."

We have no idea to whom Samberg was referring.

One woman who wished to remain anonymous summed things up for everyone:

"I'm here because my granddaughter in D.C. has picked Pete as her candidate, so I want to hear what he's all about."

Buttigieg took the stage at 7:15 and the crowd loved him.

He thrilled the crowd who came to see him on the banks of the Mississippi River. They roared approval after nearly every statement the Democratic mayor of South Bend, Indiana gave them.