IOWA FALLS, IOWA — Democratic presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar said that she recently received some words of encouragement about her poll numbers from former President Jimmy Carter.
“Jimmy Carter sent me an email the other day saying that he had half the support known that I did at this point. And he won, why? Because he went around Iowa, right, he went around New Hampshire, he got people to know who he is,” Klobuchar told a crowd of about 60 people at a campaign stop at an Iowa Falls, Iowa coffee shop. “So whenever anyone counts me out, I go, ‘Oh, please don’t underestimate me.’”
A Monmouth University poll released Thursday found the Minnesota senator had 3% support nationally among Democratic primary voters and caucus-goers, up from 1% in April and 3% in March. In early primary states, the poll found Klobuchar had 5% support.
“We have been doing very well,” Klobuchar said, pointing to the uptick in polls. “I thought that was pretty good given that I am from a state that is a little off the radar of some of these national pundits and you don’t get talked about as much on the national news.”
Klobuchar later told reporters that Carter has been sending her emails “here and there.” She met with Carter and his wife Rosalynn at his Plains, Ga., home in February, where she said he gave her advice about running an underdog campaign.
She said that Carter loves the nature of grassroots politics and told her how he kept his spirits up though his campaign.
“I always like to remind people that no one thought a peanut farmer — you can look at his national support — was going to win,” Klobuchar told reporters. “No one thought an Arkansas governor was going to win,” she said, referring to former President Bill Clinton, “and no one thought a guy named Barack Obama was going to win as president.”
