MASON CITY, IA-Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich made his way to Mason City. It's just a week after he made his presidential campaign announcement.
It's the first of a parade of presidential hopefuls that will be pounding the pavement all across Iowa.
Gingrich boasted his conservative platform centered on job creation, no tax increases and balancing the budget.
Gingrich says, "my message on the campaign trail is disciplined and focused. It's about jobs, it’s about the price of gasoline, it's about American energy policy. Every place I’ve been we talk about things everyday people care about desperately."
That's a message that resonated with the crowd that packed the Mason City Airport to talk with Gingrich.
Undecided voter Nathan Hughes says. "it swayed me in a positive way. But I didn't really know him too well cause I was younger when he was speaker and everything. So I just wanted to know where he was standing on the issues."
Gingrich supporter Chris Schwarck says, "he's one of the few candidates that I’ve heard that has the courage, the ability to stand up and tell it like it is."
But it's that straight approach that may have Gingrich taking a lot of heat for the comments he made on a national political show.
Gingrich faces criticism from several members of his party for taking aim at provisions of GOP Representative Paul Ryan's budget proposal and appeared to support a health care mandate.
His response to that today...signing a petition to repeal President Obama's healthcare plan.
The first time he's taken such a strong step.
Gingrich says, "we have been thinking about signing this petition anyway and we wanted to focus people's attention on now decisively I am opposed to Obamacare."
Regardless of all the politics, Iowans are just enjoying the start of a 2012 presidential election that will play out right in front of them.
Schwarck says, "we have a campaigns of the presidential candidates coming to Iowa seeking support of the Iowans and it sets a tone how they move forward."
We are still quite a ways from the presidential election, but Iowans are already getting excited.
The event was three times larger than organizers expected and had to be moved to the airport lobby area - and that was still filled with people.
So it will definitely be an interesting time as more candidates make their way to the state.
Gingrich says this is the first of many stops they will make here in North Iowa.
As of now they plan to be in Clear Lake on the Fourth of July.
