Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar announced that she will run for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination at a snowy outdoor rally Sunday.
“I stand before you as the granddaughter of an iron ore miner, the daughter of a teacher and a newspaperman, 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 told supporters who braved the weather to see her announcement.
“We are all tired of the shutdowns and the putdowns, the gridlock and the grandstanding,” she added. “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.”
Klobuchar, 58, is a former longtime prosecutor who was elected to the Senate in 2006. She won her race for a third term in November by 26 points, winning 43 counties that President Trump carried in 2016.
Klobuchar is a moderate in a field of candidates who have embraced ambitious reforms touted by the likes of Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
“On the issues that the Democratic Party’s base are prioritizing — Medicare-for-all, tuition-free college, a $15 minimum wage — Klobuchar is notably quiet,” Vox reported. “While other 2020 hopefuls like Sens. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) have made a point to sign on to major progressive legislation around health care and inequality, Klobuchar hasn’t. She’s earned a reputation as a moderate and has made a career of keeping out of the fights that will likely dominate the 2020 Democratic primary.”
Trump feuds with Klobuchar after announcement:
Trump took a shot at the Minnesota Senator by invoking his world-class climate science smarts.
“Well, it happened again,” Trump wrote. “Amy Klobuchar announced that she is running for President, talking proudly of fighting global warming while standing in a virtual blizzard of snow, ice and freezing temperatures. Bad timing. By the end of her speech she looked like a Snowman(woman)!”
It’s cold outside, you see, which negates all of the decades of climate science.
“Science is on my side,” Klobuchar replied on Twitter.
“Looking forward to debating you about climate change (and many other issues),” she added. “And I wonder how your hair would fare in a blizzard?”
Staff complaints dog Klobuchar:
HufffPost reported that Klobuchar had trouble finding a campaign manager because she has a history of complaints of mistreatment from staff. Klobuchar has among the highest rates of staff turnover in the Senate and was reportedly chided by former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid about her treatment of staff members. Many other former staffers said that Klobuchar is tough, because she works hard and expects others to keep her long hours, but denied allegations of mistreatment.
“Yes, I can be tough, and yes I can push people,” Klobuchar told reporters after her rally Sunday. “I have high expectations for myself, I have high expectations for the people that work for me, but I have high expectations for this country.”
“In the end, there are so many great stories of our staff that have been with me for years,” she added.
