Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg came to The Venue in Atlantic on Monday, Nov. 25. Buttigieg has been traveling across Iowa, stopping at numerous places in southwest Iowa as caucus creeps closer and closer. Buttigieg spoke about long-term healthcare, and his plans to improve it. 

Buttigieg also mentioned making sure benefits to social security are preserved and never cut. “We also know that it’s not everything that we need. That we need more. And we need to create more ways for people to save,” Buttigieg said to the crowd. “A third of folks right here in Iowa have less than $5,000 saved or invested for retirement. And so, we have to do better.”

The presidential candidate also mentioned common-sense gun laws as well to “keep the children and people of this country safe.” 

Buttigieg also had people from the crowd ask questions and hold a discussion. One attendee asked about the prices of necessary drugs, specifically insulin and how he was going to stop companies from charging tons of money. “It’s one thing if you create a wonder therapy, of course, I want you to succeed for it. But if you look at things, like what’s happened to the price of insulin, or the way prices are on a lot of other drugs, some of which you need just to live, have been jacked up. There is no justification these are not some cases where the ingredient became exceedingly rare and it was impossible to produce it,” he said. Buttigieg said he would charge insulin companies money if they raise rates of insulin or life-saving drugs before inflation. 

Buttigieg spoke of his time in the Navy, where he was a lieutenant in Afghanistan. The veteran served there for seven months and served in the Threat Finance Cell (ATFC) in Kabul. The ATFC Identifies and disrupts Al Qaida, Taliban and other insurgent financial support networks in Afghanistan.

In the latest Iowa poll, Buttigieg is ahead of his competitors. He has 26 percent of the vote, followed by senator Elizabeth Warren with 19 percent, and senator Bernie Sanders with 18 percent.