In 2018, Deidre DeJear became the first African American to be nominated for statewide office in Iowa. A first-time candidate, she won an upset victory in the Democratic primary on her way to making history in the general election. The 34-year-old small business owner went on to serve as the statewide chair for Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign in Iowa and is a rising star in Democratic politics. In her conversation with Deval, she explains how she made her way to Iowa, why she stayed, and what lessons she learned running in a rural state that voted for President Trump, and what she thinks about when she thinks about being American.