The Iowa Democrats' biggest fall dinner ever — plus marches, celebrities and shows — is coming to Des Moines on Friday

The Iowa Democratic Party’s Liberty and Justice Fundraiser offers the biggest launching pad for Democratic presidential candidates hoping to electrify their campaigns in the final sprint to Caucus Day.

With just three months to go before Feb. 3, the time for a breakout moment is dwindling, and campaigns will be looking for a boost at the state party’s signature fundraiser Friday night. They’ll be hosting block parties, staging thousand-person marches and flying in celebrity endorsers to try to signal to caucusgoers, donors and pundits that they've got momentum and enthusiasm with them.

And those big shows will come even before they take the stage at Wells Fargo Arena, where the Democrats will try to wow a 13,000-person crowd and create the kind of moment that helped propel Barack Obama’s 2008 candidacy. Obama’s speech at the 2007 event — then called the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner — was a clear turning point in his campaign, paving the way to a caucus night win and his eventual nomination and inauguration.

Here’s a look at what to expect — from the traffic to the performers to the politics — as 14 presidential campaigns descend at once on downtown Des Moines.

Watch the event live here: 

Why is this event so storied?  

Since at least 1975, the Iowa Democratic Party has held a fall fundraising dinner. An informal straw poll that year showed Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter in the lead among Iowa Democrats, launching him into the national news and driving his campaign toward the nomination.

Since then, the dinner has been a destination for Democratic presidential candidates seeking that same bump. The event grew in importance and pageantry with each election cycle. Candidates brought endorsers, celebrities and politicians to show their electoral might.

Hillary Clinton was a master of the Jefferson-Jackson pageantry. She hosted the event in 2003 as the former First Lady and stole headlines from the presidential candidates. During her own campaign for president in 2007, Clinton brought Grammy Award-winning producer Quincy Jones to the event. Pop star Katy Perry performed a 20-minute concert for the senator and her supporters in 2015.

But beyond the glittering façade of fame, the speeches matter, too. Obama seized the opportunity in 2007 to display his popularity and hammer home his message.

He brought in a drum corps to march through downtown, held a rally with an estimated 4,000 supporters, as well as musician John Legend, and gave a speech that reverberated through the hall — and echoed for the rest of his campaign.

“I run for the presidency of the United States of America because that's the party America needs us to be right now — a party that offers not just a difference in policies, but a difference in leadership; a party that doesn't just focus on how to win but why we should; a party that doesn't just offer change as a slogan, but real, meaningful change — change that America can believe in,” Obama said.

The Des Moines Register’s political columnist called it a great speech and one of the best of Obama’s campaign. David Axelrod, Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, told the Register later that “from that point on, we had inexorable momentum in Iowa."

How is this year’s dinner different from previous ones?

This year’s dinner will be the largest in the caucus's history. With 14 candidates scheduled to attend, the Liberty and Justice Celebration will be twice as large as the biggest Jefferson-Jackson dinners, which topped out at seven candidates.

To accommodate the large field, the Iowa Democratic Party plans to give each candidate 10 minutes to speak. In 2007, Clinton and Obama both had at least 20 minutes.

The crowd of Democratic activists will also be larger than ever before, said Iowa Democratic Party spokesman Jonah Hermann. He estimates there will be “upwards of 13,000” people in attendance.

The largest crowd to date came in 2007, when 9,000 attendees turned out.

Another major change this year is the new name. The Jefferson-Jackson dinner was named after two of the party’s most prominent U.S. presidents, Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson.

But in recent years, more and more Democrats have steered away from honoring the two men because both were slave owners and because of Jackson’s policy of forcibly relocating Native Americans. Since 2012, nearly a dozen state Democratic parties have renamed events previously celebrating the two party leaders.

The Iowa Democratic Party's State Central Committee passed a resolution in 2015 to change the name of the annual event. This will be the first dinner to bear the new name, the Liberty and Justice Celebration, that the party settled on in September.

What shows will this year’s candidates bring?

Before the main event begins, some candidates are planning to put on a show — literally.

• Entrepreneur Andrew Yang is bringing in Rivers Cuomo, the frontman for rock band Weezer, for a “Yangapalooza” concert at the Brenton Skating Plaza, 520 Robert D. Ray Drive,  at 1 p.m.  The event will include appearances by stand-up comedians and Kyle Christensen, an Iowan who bought his guitar using part of the $1,000 a month “Freedom Dividend” that is central to the Yang campaign’s pitch.
• U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California will hold a block party with her supporters at the Iowa Events Center in room 316, beginning at 3 p.m. before marching to the arena.
• South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg will have his own party beginning at 4 p.m. at Cowles Commons, 221 Walnut St., followed by a march to the arena with his supporters.
• U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont will host a “march to end corporate greed” near the west corner of the Community Choice Credit Union Convention Center, 833 5th Ave., starting at 5:30 p.m.
• Former Vice President Joe Biden will hold a pre-rally at the Community Choice Credit Union Convention Center at 5 p.m.
• U.S. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey will hold a “hope, hype, hustle celebration” at the Iowa Events Center, 730 3rd St., beginning at 5 p.m. Booker's girlfriend, actress Rosario Dawson, will attend.
• Former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas will hold a pre-rally at the Rotary Riverwalk Park beginning at 5:15 p.m.
• Former U.S. Rep. John Delaney of Maryland is offering food and drinks at Buzzard Billy’s bar, 615 3rd St., from 3-6 p.m.
• Montana Gov. Steve Bullock will hold a “grassroots summit” at the Iowa Events Center at 2:30 p.m. to train the governor’s supporters to organize ahead of the caucuses.
• U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota will hold a rally at the Forte Convention Center, 615 3rd St., at 4:30 p.m. and plans to march to the arena with her supporters.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, activist Tom Steyer, former housing secretary Julian Castro and U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet have not released their specific pre-party plans to the Register.

Will there be traffic? 

The massive influx of attendees will likely clog downtown Des Moines for much of Friday afternoon and evening.

A few streets will be closed, parking will be limited and lots and lots of pedestrians and marchers will be wandering through downtown.

► More: Democrats are invading Iowa and it's really going to mess up downtown Des Moines on Friday

What else will candidates be doing in Iowa? 

After the Liberty and Justice Celebration, candidates will scatter across Iowa for a variety of weekend forums and events. There are three additional multi-candidate events Saturday — one in Des Moines with NAACP and media organizations; and two in Cedar Rapids: an Abby Finkenauer Fish Fry and a forum with disability activists.

In addition to those appearances, there are over 40 events scheduled around the state between Saturday and Tuesday. Keep up with the daily schedules on our interactive candidate tracker or through morning tweets from the Register's Twitter Caucus Bot.

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