(Radio Iowa) — Former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper says his first abandoned foray into property development taught him not to give up on “a great idea” — like his current campaign for the White House. “I’m going to keep pushing as long as I feel people are heaing something in me that for them is a solution to this crisis of division,” Hickenlooper says, “all this animosity that this country’s filled with right now.”

Many of Hickenlooper’s national staff and advisers left the campaign after urging the 67-year-old to run for Colorado’s U.S. Senate instead. Hickenlooper says throughout his career, he’s faced critics who say he’s not the right person for the job of running a brew pub, being mayor of Denver or governor of Colorado, but he persevered.

“How do you win if you’re at one percent in the polls nationally? You win Iowa,” HIckenlooper says. “That’s how you win. You go out and you walk back and forth across Iowa and you drive cars across Iowa and you convince people that…you’re the best person for the job and…that you can win Iowa and most people in Iowa they feel that if you win Iowa, you’re going to become the next president.”

Hickenlooper says he may not be the smartest candidate in the race, but no one will work harder. “There’s not slick slogans and you know it’s going to take a while to turn the tide, but I believe I am different than anybody else,” Hickenlooper told reporters, “and I think when people get to know that and hear it, they’ll begin to talk about it to their neighbors.”

Hickenlooper spoke to crowds in Des Moines, Creston and Ottumwa Monday. Hicklooper describes himself as a “pragmatic progressive” and argues he can win in swing states Donald Trump won in 2016.