Pete Buttigieg's senior staff is huddling with donors and activists for a series of strategy events in Iowa over the weekend, according to a schedule obtained by POLITICO.
Timed to coincide with Buttigieg’s attendance at Saturday's Polk County Steak Fry, an Iowa political tradition, the campaign scheduled a private evening dinner with donors on Friday night, before the all-candidate forum the next day.
The Buttigieg campaign will then invite donors to a “working dinner and strategy session” with senior staff on Saturday evening at a hotel in downtown Des Moines."You will hear about our path to victory in the early states, interact with other members of the Investors Circle, and strategize how to further strengthen our fundraising operations before the end of the quarter," reads the emailed invitation to donors, which is signed by Anthony Mercurio, the national investment director for Buttigieg's campaign.
A person familiar with the retreat expected two to three dozen donors will attend.
Last June, Buttigieg hosted a similar donor retreat during the first Democratic National Committee debate in Miami, when senior staff briefed nearly 100 donors on the campaign’s transformation from a shoestring operation to a full-fledged, well-financed presidential campaign.
While Buttigieg's donors and staff gather Saturday night, the South Bend, Ind., mayor will kick off his own version of the "Straight-Talk Express," a four-day bus tour with the media joining Buttigieg for the entire time.
Buttigieg raised nearly $25 million last quarter, an enormous haul that vaulted him into the upper tier of contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination.
In recent weeks, his campaign has focused on rapidly building out its on-the-ground infrastructure in the early states. Buttigieg, who has hovered in the mid-single digits in national polling, has opened more than 30 field offices across Iowa and New Hampshire this month.Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine