Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar announced the official start of her 2020 presidential campaign Sunday, touting how her Upper Midwest state is the ideal representation of how a divided nation can be brought back together.
Klobuchar delivered her speech at a snowy outdoor rally along the Mississippi riverfront in Minneapolis, using the backdrop to make her pitch to voters why her roots make her a better candidate than other contenders who hail from the East and West coasts.
“The Mississippi River, all our rivers they connect us, to one another, to our shared story. For this is how this country was founded, with patriots who saw more that united them than divided them,” she said.
“But that sense of community is fracturing across our nation right now, worn down by the petty and vicious nature of our politics,” she said. “We are tired of the shutdowns and the showdowns, of the gridlock and the grandstanding. … Our nation must be governed not from chaos but from opportunity. Not by wallowing over what’s wrong, but by marching inexorably toward what’s right. … Let us cross the river of our divides and walk across our sturdy bridge to higher ground.”
The 58-year-old former prosecutor was elected to the Senate in 2006, becoming the state’s first elected female senator. She has never lost an election, easily winning her three Senate campaigns by wide margins. President Trump narrowly lost the state in 2016. During the 2018 midterm elections, Klobuchar won 43 Minnesota counties Trump had won two years prior.
Speculation grew last year about whether Klobuchar would enter the 2020 fray, fueled by her sparring with Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing. Klobuchar noted her father had battled alcoholism during her childhood, using it to ask Kavanaugh, who faced multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, whether he had ever blacked out while drinking. Kavanaugh tried to turn the question back on Klobuchar, and later apologized for losing his temper with her.
Despite her success in her home state, Klobuchar’s campaign comes with some challenges.
She has less name recognition than other candidates in a primary race that already includes three other female Democratic senators.
Klobuchar’s reputation may also be an issue, as reports in recent days say she fostered a hostile work environment and often lashed out at her staff over small mistakes. The reports said this has created a hurdle in hiring for her presidential campaign.
After taking the stage to announce her 2020 campaign, Klobuchar thanked her staff.
The Republican National Committee jumped on those reports Sunday to attack Klobuchar’s candidacy.
“It’s tough to find any base of support for Amy Klobuchar’s candidacy. She has virtually no grassroots backing and even her own staff is complaining that she’s ‘intolerably cruel,’” RNC spokesman Michael Ahrens said in a statement.
Klobuchar is the latest in what is becoming a crowded field of Democrats vying to take on Trump.
Among the sitting and former members of Congress, Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kamala Harris of California, Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, and former Maryland Rep. John Delaney have already kicked off their campaigns. Julian Castro, former Housing and Urban Development secretary under former President Barack Obama, outgoing South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, entrepreneur Andrew Yang, and author Marianne Williamson are also running.
