An unlikely celebrity: Birch reflects on King, her moment in the spotlight and what comes next

Within the turbocharged whirlwind that is the modern media cycle, the brief fascination with a sparsely attended Steve King rally in Grundy Center already feels long forgotten a week and a half later. But for the lone constituent in the audience, 21-year-old Jessica Birch of Dike, the simple act of showing up catapulted her to an appearance on CNN and a brief brush with viral fame.
           
“I had no idea that that would ever actually happen. It was kind of crazy. It was very weird,” she said. “I told my mom about it, and that’s all I figured would happen—like ‘Oh yeah, this was a weird experience.’ Honestly, everything that’s happened after has been crazy and weirder than the actual hour there talking.” 
           
Late last week, Birch, who had previously been interviewed by the left-leaning political blog Iowa Starting Line (she also heard from NPR, but the story has since been tabled), spoke to The Grundy Register about the experience, her own political activism and whether she has any plans to run for office herself in the future.
           
Birch, a Solon native, has gotten active in local Democratic organizations during her time at UNI, and she learned of the event via Facebook. She previously interned with former Congressman and current presidential candidate John Delaney of Maryland, and she’s studying Public Administration and Political Science with an emphasis on economics and finance.
           
She hopes to stay in the Cedar Valley area after graduation, and while she doesn’t think she’ll ever run against King himself, Birch added that running for Iowa House someday would be “really cool.”
           
“Hopefully (King) is out of office before I’d ever have that opportunity to run against him,” she said of the controversial 70-year-old representative.
 
 
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