Klobuchar gaining foothold in New Hampshire with newspaper endorsement and stronger polls

“Beating Donald Trump means building a broad coalition and bringing people with us,” the Minnesota senator tweeted late Saturday.

In its editorial, the New Hampshire Union Leader flagged weaknesses with her rivals, former Vice President Joe Biden, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, ahead of a general election against President Trump. Those four contenders comprise the top-tier of Democratic White House hopefuls, according to RealClearPolitics polling averages.

“Each has weaknesses, whether of age, inexperience or a far-left agenda that thrills some liberals but is ripe for exploitation in a mainstream general election,” the newspaper wrote. “Sen. Klobuchar has none of those weaknesses and the incumbent needs to be presented a challenger who is not easily dismissed.”

The endorsement preceded the release Sunday morning of NBC News’s and Marist’s first poll of New Hampshire, which found 10% of likely Democratic primary voters would cast their ballot for Klobuchar on Feb. 11. The survey is the second one in as many weeks in which the senator has registered double-digit support after an Emerson College study showed her breaking the barrier for the first time earlier in January.

Between the endorsement and the poll numbers, Klobuchar, the former chief prosecutor for the county covering Minneapolis, is countering concerns she cannot compete in New Hampshire given the perceived dominance of Sanders and Warren as neighboring senators. Some Democratic strategists expressed doubt to the Washington Examiner earlier in the cycle whether Klobuchar’s Midwest appeal, which has helped her in Iowa, would assist her in wooing voters in New England.

In the final days before Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses on Feb. 3, Klobuchar was this week endorsed by the New York Times and Iowa’s Quad-City Times. She was also named the candidate “best for the needs and interests of rural Iowa” by Focus on Rural America, a poll in which she pulled 11% support. Yet the senator still trails the field’s leading pack, including consistent front-runners Biden and Sanders, a trend picked up on by political commentators on Twitter.

“Dem women helped Ds win House in 2018. Dem women running for president keep winning editorial board endorsements, yet still two older, white guys who are top choice for D voters in 2020,” Amy Walter, the national editor of the Cook Political Report, tweeted Sunday.