Klobuchar banks on middle ground
Senator braves the cold to declare presidential run
The wide Democratic field of 2020 presidential candidates expanded further Sunday when U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota threw her hat in the ring at an outdoor event on a freezing afternoon in Minneapolis.
Klobuchar, 58, hopes her workingclass, Midwestern background will help her seize the middle ground in a Democratic primary in which many of the candidates who have announced generally appeal to the party’s more liberal wing.
As the snow came down and the temperatures hovered in the high teens, Klobuchar announced:
“I stand before you as the granddaughter of an iron ore miner, as the daughter of a teacher and a newspaperman, as the first woman elected to the United States Senate from the state of Minnesota, to announce my candidacy for president of the United States.”
Klobuchar delivered her remarks at Boom Island Park on the shores of the Mississippi River. According to The Weather Channel, it was 16 degrees Fahrenheit around the time she made her announcement, but it felt like 7 degrees with the wind chill.
“I don’t come from money,” Klobuchar said. “But what I do have is this: I have grit. I have family. I have friends. I have neighbors. I have all of you who are willing to come out in the middle of the winter, all of you who took the time to watch us today from home, all of you who are willing to stand up and say people matter.”
In 2006, Klobuchar became the first woman elected to the Senate from Minnesota. Last year, she won re-election to a third term with 60 percent of the vote in a state that President Donald Trump lost by only 1.5 percentage points.
She is banking on that success carrying over into other Midwestern states to give her an edge in the Iowa caucuses.
Klobuchar, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, gained attention during the contentious confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. In one exchange during which Klobuchar asked Kavanaugh about his alcohol consumption, she spoke of growing up with an alcoholic father.
She voted against Kavanaugh, as well as Justice Neil Gorsuch. She opposed most of Trump’s Cabinet nominees, including Jeff Sessions, Betsy DeVos and Steven Mnuchin. But, according to FiveThirtyEight, she voted with Trump 31.5 percent of the time, the highest among the five Democratic senators officially running in the primary.
Klobuchar is more moderate than some of her primary opponents on a couple of Democratic issues. Unlike Sens. Kamala Harris of California, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, she opposes the elimination of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Although she says the United States needs expansive health care, she has not endorsed the Medicare for All plan supported by Harris and Sen. Bernie Sanders.