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Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton and her husband, former US president Bill Clinton, at the Harkin steak fry in Indianola, Iowa. Photograph: Reuters/Jim Young

Hillary Clinton has sent another strong signal that she may run for the presidency in 2016 when she returned to the politically significant state of Iowa in the American midwest for the first time since she lost a caucus election there in her unsuccessful 2008 presidential run.

In her most political speech since resigning as secretary of state last year, Ms Clinton offered little new about whether she had decided to run in 2016, but her visit to Iowa intensifies expectation that she will.

Its true, the former New York senator told at a crowd of about 10,000 Democratic supporters, I am thinking about it. Among the crowd were thousands of supporters bedecked in Ready for Hillary paraphernalia, an independent group pushing her to run.

Accompanied by husband, former president Bill Clinton, she attended the last steak fry hosted by Iowas Democratic senator Tom Harkin on Sunday, as his retirement leaves a seat that Republicans believe they can win in their bid to regain control of the Senate.

Its been seven years and a lot has changed, she told the crowd in a state that delivered a damaging early hit to her 2008 campaign. Ms Clinton came third behind Barack Obama and John Edwards, the former North Carolina senator, in Iowas Democratic caucus.

Iowa is the first state in the nation to vote in the presidential election year, generating intense national interest in this largely agricultural state.

Ms Clinton however focused on Novembers congressional midterm elections. She pushed the crowd to support Democrat Senate candidate Bruce Braley, who is battling Republican nominee Joni Ernst, and Staci Appel, who is hoping to become the first female congresswoman elected from Iowa if she wins in November.

Ms Clinton is leading the 2016 presidential polls, including in Iowa, and has mobilised stronger support than she did in the 2008 campaign.

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Hillary Clinton thinking about running for presidency in 2016

Indianola, Iowa Hillary Rodham Clinton's third-place finish in the 2008 Iowa caucuses seemed but a fading memory when the former secretary of state took the stage in front of roughly 10,000 loyal Democrats at outgoing Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin's annual fall fundraiser south of Des Moines.

Though Clinton is the favorite for the 2016 Democratic nomination should she run, she advised the audience and the media on Sunday that her focus was on the November midterm elections. Still, she left just enough hints that a second bid for president could come, and that it might begin in Iowa.

1. IT'S GREAT TO BE BACK IN IOWA.

After posing for photographs turning a grill full of red meat at Harkin's farewell "steak fry," Clinton stopped to say hello to the remaining reporters, after many had left.

Asked whether she was glad to be back in Iowa, where her 2008 campaign hit a costly bump, she said: "It's great, it's fabulous to be back. I love Iowa."

And then she launched into an anecdote she often told in Iowa at the outset of her 2008 campaign. "I first came to Iowa when I was about, I can't remember, I was either 9 or 10," she said. "And we were with my dad, and we went to Des Moines and we stayed at the Tall Corn Motel. I've had a great impression ever since."

2. SOME VOTERS ARE READY.

Clinton insisted the point of speaking at Harkin's event was to boost 2014 candidates. But she dropped hints of a potential 2016 candidacy into her speech to an audience packed with people wearing "Ready" stickers, symbols of the Ready for Hillary political action committee that is laying the groundwork for a potential campaign.

Clinton described her personal concerns first as an expectant grandmother. "And then of course, there's that other thing," she said, fueling a slow but steady rise in cheers from the crowd. "Well, it is true, I am thinking about it, but for today that is not why I'm here." The caveat prompted a corresponding moan of disappointment.

"Too many people only get excited about presidential campaigns," she said later. "Look, I get excited about presidential campaigns too." she said. Again, cheers erupted.

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Hillary Clinton in Iowa: 5 takeaways from her visit

This article originally appeared on Slate.

INDIANOLA, Iowa -- Hillary Clinton opened her remarks at the 37th annual Harkin Steak Fry by talking about the imminent arrival of her daughter's first child and her possible presidential campaign. It was hard to tell which was more pregnant.

Clinton didn't mention her candidacy directly, but in her first visit to the state since her third-place showing in the 2008 caucuses, she made a succession of coy references. "Of course there's that other thing," she said after talking about how she and her husband were consumed with the prospect of their first grandchild. "Well it is true, I am thinking about it, but for today that is not why I'm here. I'm here for the steak." There were a few other nods and winks and Clinton concluded by saying, "Let's not let another seven years go by."

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Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Iowa, the first-in-the-nation caucus state, for the first time since she finished third there i...

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Clinton praised President Obama and rallied Democrats to turn out for the 2014 midterms during her first public event in Iowa since the 2008 pres...

The audience of 10,000 got the joke. As they filed out, I asked James Hanifen, a World War II veteran, if he thought, based on what he'd heard, that she was running for president. "It's obvious she is. I mean, unless you're really, really dumb."

The Clinton campaign has been conceived and everyone is just waiting around for the birth announcement. That makes it murky to assess the Clinton candidacy. You can hardly judge a couple's parenting skills before the baby arrives. Though that doesn't stop the criticisms. The conventional complaint among Democratic campaign veterans and strategists who are not in the Clinton camp is that she has not developed a message and a rationale for her candidacy. She's running on the fact that it's her turn. Inevitability is deadly for candidates.

That critique is wildly premature. Not only has the official campaign where she could articulate a vision not started, but even when it does, Clinton is a prohibitive front-runner of a kind we have not seen in this century, which means she has time to get her act together.

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The final days of the unofficial Hillary Clinton campaign

Washington Hillary Rodham Clinton did not announce that shes running for president during her big Sunday appearance at the Harkin Steak Fry in Iowa. Nobody really expected she would, though reporters keep asking about her intention. Maybe they just hope shell forget herself and let something slip out if they keep up the badgering.

But Clinton talked like a candidate. And by that were not just referring to her coy Hello Iowa, Im baaaack! at the start of her speech to the crowd. Her address focused a lot on economic issues, specially pitched to try and appeal to middle class voters. It sounded like the first draft of a stump speech the kind of thing shell repeat over and over in the months to come, with some tailoring of the edges for her particular audience.

Her theme? Surprise, surprise, it appears to be economic problems as experienced by the middle class. (Didnt another presidential candidate named Clinton once have a sign on their war room wall, Its the economy, stupid?)

In this Clinton appears to be fulfilling the prediction made by conservative talk show host Glenn Beck, who earlier this month said she will campaign on nostalgia for the prosperous years when Bill Clinton ran the country.

Today, you know so well, American families are working harder than ever, but maintaining a middle-class life feels like pushing a boulder uphill every single day. That is not how its supposed to be in America, said Hillary Clinton at the Steak Fry podium, standing in front of a backdrop of a tractor and bales of hay.

Then she looped this idea back into the American Dream, saying that in the US in the past each generation has done a little better than the one before.

Thats who weve always been and that is what our country must be again. So thats what this election is really about, said the former secretary of State.

No, she wasnt referring to 2016 there. Dont get ahead of yourself. She was talking about the upcoming midterms, in which the razor-close Iowa Senate race between Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley and GOP nominee Jodi Ernst could determine control of the chamber.

Clintons words got a polite reception from the crowd. Her biggest applause lines were those which dealt with womens rights, according to CNNs Peter Hamby. Thats something of a change in her, not the audience. During her 2008 run, Clinton generally shied away from focusing on her gender and the history-making nature of her candidacy, writes Mr. Hamby.

It was hubby Bill who got the warmest reception, though. He spoke after her (protocol hes actually been president, remember) and as Politicos Maggie Haberman noted, the Bill Clinton Show was very much in town.

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