(CNN) As Kamala Harris introduced herself as a 2020 presidential candidate to Iowa caucus-goers and the nation on Monday night, she showed exactly why she is viewed as such a formidable contender.

During a CNN town hall at Drake University in Des Moines, she demonstrated an easy command of the policies that are most important to Democratic progressives in early states like Iowa. She was warm, witty and quick to laugh at the jokes audience members made at President Donald Trump's expense. She locked eyes with her questioners, responding to them by name and walking toward them as she answered, while displaying empathy for their struggles.

Perhaps most important, as Democrats weigh their options in the 2020 field, she made a succinct case for why she believes she would be the strongest candidate to take on Trump and not get "caught up in his crazy," as one questioner put it.

"It's very important that anyone who presents themselves as a leader, and wants to be a leader, will speak like a leader, and that means speaking with integrity — speaking the truth," Harris said. "And speaking in a way that expresses and indicates some level of interest and concern in people other than one's self."

"Right there we will see a great contrast," she said to laughter. She added the country deserves a leader who doesn't speak to "the lowest common denominators and base instincts and speak in a way that is about inciting fear as a distraction from the fact that you're getting nothing done, helping the richest people and the biggest corporations."

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