Release: Local America Presidential Forum Pairings/Details

'LOCAL AMERICA' PRESIDENTIAL FORUM FINAL PARINGS/DETAILS
Doors Open 3:30 PM CT; Event Starts 4:30 PM CT, Friday, December 6

  • Senator Amy Klobuchar to be interviewed by Mayor Quentin Hart, Waterloo, IA

  • Secretary Julián Castro to be interviewed by Mayor Andy Schor, Lansing, MI

  • Senator Cory Booker to be interviewed by Mayor Bob Scott, Sioux City, IA

  • Businessman Tom Steyer to be interviewed by Mayor Quinton Lucas, Kansas City, MO

  • Mayor Pete Buttigieg to be interviewed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Chicago, IL

WATERLOO — The Local America Forum will take place on Friday, December 6. Doors open at 3:30pm and the event will run from 4:30 to 8:30pm. Iowa Starting Line is the official media partner for the Forum, and will stream the program online at IowaStartingLine.com. The Forum will also be broadcast live by Mediacom on station MC22 in more than 300 Iowa communities and on local channels 722 and 822. It will also reach communities in Illinois and Minnesota and will stream online nationwide. 

Free public tickets here.

“Mayors are on the front lines, and we need our leaders in Washington to join us there to fix our infrastructure, revitalize our main streets and secure people’s futures,” said U.S. Conference of Mayors President and Mayor of Rochester Hills, MI, Bryan Barnett. “Cities and their metro regions are the clear drivers of the U.S. economy and we must have leadership in Washington that empowers them with policies that foster innovation and inclusivity.”

“As Mayors, we hear directly from the people we serve at the playground, at the supermarket — face to face. That’s the perspective we are going to put in front of these candidates,” said Los Angeles Mayor and Accelerator co-founder, Eric Garcetti. “We need real solutions that will build wealth for people who don’t have it.”
 
“Every day, Mayors across the country are driving progress on issues like healthcare, housing, crime, civil rights, transportation and the environment, but they need a reliable partner in Washington,” said U.S. Conference of Mayors CEO and Executive Director Tom Cochran.  “We are looking forward to hearing from the candidates about their plans for supporting these local priorities, and expect that through this dialogue they will learn a thing or two from America’s mayors.”
 
“We’re going to challenge these candidates on how they will change Washington so that it is not only more responsive to local needs, but in fact empowers local communities instead of forcing them to react to top-down federal mandates,” said Accelerator for America Action CEO, Rick Jacobs.
 
“Of course Waterloo is in the thick of things in terms of presidential politics, but more importantly, the challenges we face and the solutions we’re applying are relevant to cities and towns across the country,” said Waterloo Mayor, Quentin Hart, who is also a member of the Accelerator for America Advisory Council.

Mayors at the Forum will include:

  • Mayor Shane Bemis, Gresham, OR

  • Mayor John Lundell, Coralville, IA

  • Mayor Quentin Hart, Waterloo, IA

  • Mayor Quinton Lucas, Kansas City, MO

  • Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Chicago IL

  • Mayor Greg Fischer, Louisville, KY

  • Mayor Eric Garcetti, Los Angeles, CA

  • Mayor Andy Schor, Lansing, MI

  • Mayor Jenny Wilson, Salt Lake County, UT

  • Mayor Luke Bronin, Hartford, CT

  • Mayor Bryan Barnett, Rochester Hills, MI

  • Mayor Bob Scott, Sioux City, IA

ACCELERATOR FOR AMERICA ACTION finds and develops solutions to economic insecurity and shares them with cities to build national change from the ground up. It was co-founded by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Rick Jacobs in 2017 around the idea that while Washington is broken and has, in fact, been broken for some time, change is still needed and must be made from the local level. It has since developed community wealth-building tools that are being used in 47 cities nationwide and has helped local communities generate $22 billion in funding for transit and transportation infrastructure. www.AcceleratorForAmerica.org

THE U.S. CONFERENCE OF MAYORS is the official non-partisan organization of cities with a population of 30,000 or larger. Each city is represented by its chief elected official, the mayor. www.USMayors.org 

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Contact: 

Yusef Robb, Accelerator for America, 323-384-1789

Sara Durr, U.S. Conference of Mayors, 202-215-1811

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