Ames Councilman Jeremy Davis Pawlenty's County Chair

Ames City Councilman Jeremy Davis will be one of 29 county chairs motivating people to vote for presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty in the days leading up to the Straw Poll in Ames on Aug. 13.

Pawlenty's campaign released a list of Iowa county campaign chairs in an announcement Tuesday, but the former Minnesota Governor asked Davis be the Story County chair about two months ago.

“It's a great honor to be asked to serve in a role like this in the county arena,” Davis said.

Davis said he favors Pawlenty because of his previous leadership experience as governor of a state. He said Pawlenty was able to move the state in a conservative direction including naming conservative judges to the state's Supreme Court and Davis liked that he was an ardent supporter of the state's National Guard. Davis spoke with a friend who lived in Minnesota at the time Pawlenty was the state's governor.

“I liked what I learned and what I heard about it,” he said.

Pawlenty's experience as governor is something contender Michele Bachmann lacks, Davis said.

“She doesn't have that chief executive officer experience you find in a governor. I think Pawlenty will do just fine,” Davis said.

Davis predicts Pawlenty will fall somewhere in the top two after the votes are tallied Aug. 13.

Pawlenty said in the announcement that he was honored to have strong leadership at the grassroots level.

“I'm grateful to these individuals for serving as leaders in their communities and for sharing my vision to rein in federal spending, reduce job-killing regulations and repeal President Obama’s costly, government-mandated health care legislation,” he said.