DES MOINES, Iowa — Two state politicians remember vividly the 1976 Iowa Caucus cycle and then candidate Jimmy Carter starting his run for the White House in the state.

“I was impressed, now I’m young, I’m very impressed as a young Democrat. Just, you know, he just had a charisma to him,” said Michael Mauro, former Iowa Secretary of State. Mauro was one of Carter’s first caucus supporters. “Believe me, when he came here that day, it was his first time here, there might have been 12 people there.”

Mauro drove Carter to the Iowa State Fairgrounds that first day he came to the state. Mauro recalled how he and Carter waited in line to buy a ticket with Mauro having a front-row ticket to the former Georgia Governor meeting Iowa voters.

“I never thought at that particular time at any concept that he’d actually take this thing, the presidency,” said Mauro. Mauro lauded how a Democrat who was not known around the country suddenly demanded a surge of media attention after his margin of victory in the 1976 Iowa Caucuses. “The real backstory to this is that put Iowa on the map. From then on every four years, every time there was a caucus meeting they (candidates) flocked to Iowa. As a result of that I got to meet every other presidential candidate to come here for a while.”

Former Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller remembers how personable Carter was with voters.

“He was virtually unknown, but he came in here and met people. And you could still tell really early on that something was happening in terms of how people reacted, how he was picking up support,” said Miller. “…he lived with a lot of people and he joked that part of the reason he did that is they, they didn’t have money for hotel rooms. But the bigger reason was that he was relating to people, he was reaching out to people, he was showing that he was friendly, that he was comfortable with Iowans.”

Miller also gives credit to his campaign’s organization with how it was set up and how it was built. Both Miller and Mauro remember Carter’s selfless nature and both said that is the first thing they thought of when the news of his passing was announced on Sunday afternoon.

“I will remember him for his decency and conviction,” said Miller. “You know, as a governor, as a candidate, as president and then most of all his post-presidency era where he did so many good things for so many people.”

“What a good man. This was a humanitarian,” said Mauro. “Another thing that struck me was he never showed a big ego. It wasn’t about President Carter. It was about him wanting to be president to do the best for the people.”