“A lot of you all know who I am because I experienced the worst day of my life on national TV,” former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn told around 350 Democrats in Clear Lake on August 14.

The keynote speaker typically rallies the crowd at the Iowa Democratic Wing Ding, an annual fundraiser for county party organizations across northern Iowa. Dunn held the room’s attention for more than 30 minutes, drawing plenty of applause—as well as laughs with zingers about President Donald Trump, U.S. Senators Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley, and Republicans in general.

But Dunn warned his audience early on, “I’m not here to give some rah rah speech.” He delivered some of his most powerful lines in a subdued voice.

By speaking candidly about his own struggles and doubts, Dunn offered a path forward—not only for Democrats who are ready to fight back, but for those still trying to pick themselves up off the floor.

Douglas Burns is a fourth-generation Iowa journalist. He is the co-founder of the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation and a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative, where this article first appeared on The Iowa Mercury newsletter. His family operated the Carroll Times Herald for 93 years in Carroll, Iowa where Burns resides.

A Capitol Police officer who stood the ground between hundreds of members of Congress and insurrectionists during the January 6 attack is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at a Council Bluffs, Iowa political event Sunday, July 27.

Harry Dunn, a now-departed United States Capitol Police officer who testified before Congress about the attack on the capitol, became a high-profile representative of the experience for other peace officers — many who were injured, some who died.

Dunn said the prospect of a full-scale slaughter of elected officials, some of the nation’s top leaders in both parties, was within literal feet, an instant here or there, in the run of events, from happening.

“Members of Congress were being told to take their pins off because they didn’t know if people would recognize that,” Dunn said in a phone interview with The Iowa Mercury. “We were a couple of right turns, and wrong turns by the insurrectionists, away from it being a bloodbath.”