Ben Carson wants to get to know Iowans as presidential candidate

CEDAR RAPIDS - When presidential candidate Ben Carson says he's not a politician, he seems to be distancing himself from what he calls the 'purveyors of division” who try to 'separate us, to make us into enemies.”

'We have a war on women, age wars, income wars, race wars, religious wars. Every kind of war you can imagine … because they recognize there is strength in our unity,” Carson told more than 200 people at a rally Tuesday afternoon in Cedar Rapids.

The rally was part of the retired neurosurgeon's first day on the Iowa caucus campaign trail after formally entering the race for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination Monday in his hometown of Detroit.

Carson won frequent applause during his 22-minute speech that touched on federal government overreach, taxation, replacing the health care law, policing and the military.

However, his audience wasn't sure how to take Carson when he talked about his childhood and running from the police 'back in the days before they would shoot you.”

That was greeted with a mixture of laughter and 'ooh.”

He quickly followed up with a call for support for police and rejection of the people 'stoking up this division” that, Carson said, would lead to more militarization of police departments.

Lisa McGrath of Cedar Rapids liked his sometimes lighthearted approach to serious issues.

'After today, I'm a supporter,” she said.

She liked his solution to the Affordable Care Act. Carson called for replacing Obamacare with health savings accounts that would begin at birth and could be passed on to family members.

'I don't want the government in control of the most important thing you have, which is your health and your health care,” Carson said to applause. 'If they have control of your health care, everything else is secondary … they've got the most important thing.”

Earlier in the day, Carson visited the Capitol in Des Moines where he said he plans to spend a lot of time in Iowa getting to know voters and what's on their minds.

'And if anyone has good solutions, I want to hear them,” Carson said.

Never having run for office will be an advantage and help him stand out in a growing field of GOP candidates, he said.

Politicians, he said, 'have a tendency to be political and always have their finger in the air and seeing which way the wind is blowing and to try to say the right things.”

Robert Heath of Cedar Rapids liked that and a lot of what Carson said, but 'I'm not sure he's my No. 1.”

Likewise, retired banker Steve Menzner of Marion applauded many of Carson's ideas, but said the question is 'Can he do this, can he get these things enacted?”

Carson's outsider talk 'may get him headlines in a crowded GOP field,” Sam Lau of the Iowa Democratic Party said, 'but his positions fail to separate him from a Republican Party that gets more extreme each and every day.”

Cedar Rapids area residents will have the opportunity to see two other GOP hopefuls Thursday when Carly Fiorina has a meet-and-greet at 7:30 a.m. at Blue Strawberry, 118 Second St. SE, and Mike Huckabee has a gathering at 4:30 p.m. at Pizza Ranch, 2450 Westdale Drive SW.

Erin Murphy of The Gazette-Lee Des Moines Bureau contributed to this report.