Klobuchar scores on realistic goals
CONCORD, N.H. — U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar surged to third place in New Hampshire’s first-inthe-nation primary, bypassing Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden to place herself in the first tier of Democratic candidates heading into Nevada and South Carolina
“Hello America, I’m Amy Klobuchar and I will beat Donald Trump,” Klobuchar said to a roaring crowd of supporters. “Donald Trump’s worst nightmare is that the people in the middle, the people who have had enough of the name-calling and the mud slinging, have someone to vote for in November.”
The Minnesota senator, who had been polling far behind her rivals in the Granite State for the majority of the 2020 cycle, moved rapidly from fifth place from her fifth-place finish in last Monday’s chaotic Iowa caucus. She had also finished fifth in Sunday’ s Franklin Pierce University-Boston Herald-NBC 10 Boston poll, with 6 percent support.
“She’s a centrist and when she says, ‘You have a home with me,’ I believe her,” said Margo Burns, of Manchester. “Every time I hear her she’s just so solid and grounded and rational and seems presidential to me.”
Klobuchar has been capitalizing on the enthusiasm following her strong debate performance Friday night, which helped raise more than $3 million for her campaign.
“She killed it last week in the debate and I think it’s only up from here,” Jenna Breitbarth–Guidi, 31, said. “I have talked to all of my friends who are Republicans and Amy is the only one that they would consider voting for. I think that that speaks wonders about what she could do.”
Klobuchar has made a name for herself as a pragmatic Midwesterner and an even-keeled politician who can win in purple states by appealing to independents and moderate Republicans. But she has spent most of the past year in the shadow of fellow moderates Biden and Buttigieg.
“I cannot wait to build a movement and win with a movement of fired up Democrats of Independents and moderate Republicans that see this election as we do,” Klobuchar said. “We see it as an economic check on this president, we see it as a patriotism check and we see it as a decency check because in the end, we know that what unites us is so much bigger than what divides us.”
Breitbarth–Guidi, of Salem, Mass., is soon moving to Portsmouth, N.H., with her two young daughters, who she said often tell her that they don’t understand why there hasn’t been a woman president.
“I don’t really understand either,” Breitbarth– Guidi said, as her five-yearold daughter Lucy ran around the conference room holding up an “Amy for America,” sign.
N.H. State Rep Christy Dolat Bartlett is impressed by Klobuchar’s ability to cross the aisle.
“Being in the Legislature, I know how hard it is to get both sides to come together and to listen to each other and we’ve got to do that in this country,” Dolat Bartlett said. “I think she’s the right woman for the job.”