Howard Dean, former presidential candidate and now chairman of the Democratic National Committee, told an enthusiastic Liberty Hall crowd this afternoon in downtown Lawrence that Democrats must get organized to compete in strongly Republican states such as Kansas.

“We need to go everywhere,” he said to the crowd, estimated at around 1,000 people. “There is not one county in this state, I don’t care how far west you go, that doesn’t have Democrats. We have to be proud of who we are.”

Dean’s visit to Lawrence also included a $100-a-head fund-raiser at the home of John and Nancy Hiebert.

For more on this story, see the 6News reports at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Sunflower Broadband’s channel 6 and pick up a copy of Saturday’s Journal-World.