The Making of the President 2020: Amy Klobuchar
Two former Minnesota US Senators have previously served as the Democratic Party's nominee for President (though both Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale did so after having been Vice-President). Both were unsuccessful in the general election. Current Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar believes that the third time will be the charm. On a cold Minnesota winter day on February 10, 2019, she announced her candidacy to an outdoor audience at a campaign announcement rally at Boom Island Park in Minneapolis.
Amy Jean Klobuchar was born in Plymouth, Minnesota, Klobuchar on May 25, 1960. Her5 mother was a second grade teacher and her father was a sportswriter and columnist for the Star Tribune. Her father was an alcoholic who spent a lot of time away from his family due to his drinking. Her parents divorced when Klobuchar was 15. Her father eventually quit drinking and her parents reconciled a few years after the divorce. Klobuchar received her B.A. degree magna cum laude in political science in 1982 from Yale University, where she was a member of the improv troupe Suddenly Susan. During her time at Yale, Klobuchar spent time as an intern for then Vice President Walter Mondale. Klobuchar enrolled at the University of Chicago Law School, where she received her J. D. in 1985.
After law school, Klobuchar worked as a corporate lawyer, as a prosecutor, and as a partner at the Minnesota law firms Dorsey & Whitney and Gray Plant Mooty, where she specialized in regulatory work in telecommunications law. She was motivated to become politically active after she gave birth and was forced to leave the hospital 24 hours later, despite the fact a that her newborn daughter was born with a condition which made it difficult for her to swallow. That cause Klobuchar to lobby the Minnesota State Legislature for a bill that would guarantee new mothers a 48-hour hospital stay. Minnesota passed the bill and President Bill Clinton later made the policy federal law.
Klobuchar was elected Hennepin County attorney in 1998, and reelected in 2002 unopposed. She was President of the Minnesota County Attorneys Association from November 2002 to November 2003. She was elected as the US Senator for Minnesota in 2006 with 58% of the vote, winning all but eight of Minnesota's 87 counties. She became the first woman to be elected U.S. Senator from Minnesota. (Muriel Humphrey, the state's first female senator and former Second Lady of the United States, was appointed to fill her husband's unexpired term and not elected.) She was re-elected in 2012 with 65.2% of the vote, and again in 2018 by a 24-point margin.
In February 2017, Klobuchar called for an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate ties between Russia and President Donald Trump and his administration. Klobuchar had joined Republican senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham on a trip to the Baltic states and Ukraine. During the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination hearings in 2018, Kavanaugh responded angrily to Klobuchar's questions about whether he had ever experienced memory loss after consuming alcohol, for which he later apologized.
In February 2019 a report from Buzzfeed News alleged that Klobuchar's Congressional office was "controlled by fear, anger, and shame". Interviews with former staffers contained reports that Klobuchar frequently abuses and humiliates her employees, and alleged that she had serious anger management issues. Klobuchar was also listed as one of the "worst bosses in Congress", with an annual staff turnover rate between 2011 and 2016 of 36%, the highest of any senator.
Klobuchar is a member of a number of Senate committees including the Committee on the Judiciary, the Subcommittee Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, the Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, the Subcommittee on Border Security and Immigration, the Subcommittee on Oversight, Agency Action, Federal Rights, and Federal Courts, the Joint Economic Committee, the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet, the Subcommittee on Manufacturing, Trade, and Consumer Protection, the Subcommittee on Transportation and Safety, the Subcommittee on Security, the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, the Subcommittee on Rural Development and Energy, the Subcommittee on Conservation, Forestry and Natural Resources, the Subcommittee on Livestock, Marketing and Agriculture Security, the Committee on Rules and Administration, the Joint Committee on Printing, and the Joint Committee on Library. She is also a member of the Congressional NextGen 9-1-1 Caucus.
On March 30, 2008, Klobuchar announced her endorsement of Senator Barack Obama in the Democratic presidential primary, promising her superdelegate vote for him. In 2016 she was an early supporter of Hillary Clinton's second campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. In 2017, Klobuchar and Bernie Sanders represented the Democratic Party in a televised debate on healthcare policy and the possible repeal of the Affordable Healthcare Act on CNN.
On February 10, 2019, Klobuchar announced that she is running for President and will compete in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries. She has stated that she is pro-choice on abortion, she supports LGBT rights and Obamacare, and is critical of the Iraq War. In 2015 she published an autobiography, The Senator Next Door: A Memoir from the Heartland.
As a U.S. Senator, Klobuchar has made increasing insurance programs for farmers impacted by severe weather and market fluctuations a priority. She also said during the CNN Town Hall that while she likes the idea of a Green New Deal, she does not see it as realistic. She
Klobuchar said that during her first 100 days in office, she would reinstate the Clean Power Plan and gas mileage standards and propose legislation to invest in green jobs and infrastructure. She also said that on her first day, the U.S. would rejoin the Paris Climate Change Agreement.
In 2018, Klobuchar introduced a bill to make online terms of service more clear and requiring more transparency regarding what data companies gather and share. On crime issues, Klobuchar has been criticized for having been a "tough on crime" prosecutor who took part in the "war on drugs" and increased her county's prison population. She is accused of prosecutions which disproportionally affected people of color. Klobuchar says that she favors "common sense" gun safety legislation such as universal background checks.
Klobuchar does not support free, four-year college for all, saying that while she wished she could make it happen, it is not realistic. She proposed allowing students to more easily refinance their student loans and making community colleges free.
In her announcement speech, Klobuchar said she supported an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to overturn the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. FEC. She also wants to restore the Voting Rights Act and automatic voter registration for every 18 year old U.S. citizen. Following Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections, she introduced legislation in 2017 in the Senate to bring more online communications under the oversight of election law, with the goal of increasing the transparency of online election advertising. The bill would also require social media companies to maintain more information on advertisement buyers and who they target. The bill was endorsed by both Facebook and Twitter but failed in the Senate.
Klobuchar does not support the Medicare-for All plan proposed Senator Bernie Sanders. She does support a path to universal healthcare, believing a good first step would be a public option, allowing Americans to opt-in to government-run health insurance instead of finding private plans. She said her priorities would be expanding Medicare and Medicaid, improving the ACA, and creating a public option. She wants to see a reduction in the costs of prescription drugs and has introduced legislation encouraging the development of cheaper, generic versions of name-brand drugs.
On March 28, 2019, Klobuchar announced her infrastructure plan, calling it her "top budget priority" and said she would focus on getting it passed during her first year in office. Her focus is listed as follows:
Repairing and replacing old roads, bridges, and highways, including stabilizing the Highway Trust Fund.
Providing flood protection and updating and modernizing American airports, seaports, and inland waterways.
Expanding public transportation and updating existing rail infrastructure.
Rebuilding public schools and overhauling the U.S.'s housing policy.
Providing internet connection to every U.S. home by 2022.
Building climate-friendly and green infrastructure.
Investing more in drinking and wastewater systems in the U.S. to provide clean water.
Klobuchar estimates that her plan will cost $1 trillion. To pay for this investment, she calls for raising federal investment in infrastructure; assisting state and local governments in getting donations from private companies/individuals; issuing "Move America", "Build America", and clean energy bonds to local and state governments for funding; ensuring infrastructure-designated revenue collected is used for their intended purpose; and instituting corporate tax reforms to bring in additional revenue, including making the corporate tax rate 25%, and increasing tax enforcement efforts.
Klobuchar has cited her concern with the growing national debt as one of her main reasons for opposing proposals such as Medicare-for-All and free college. She said that she doesn't "want to leave that on the shoulders" of the next generation. She has criticized the Trump Administration for allowing the national debt to grow.
During her announcement speech, Klobuchar called for a strengthening of the U.S.'s cyber security and guaranteeing net neutrality nationwide. She also said that by 2022, every U.S. household should be connected to the internet. She has also urged President Trump to quickly renegotiate trade deals and end Chinese tariffs that hurt the agriculture industry in the U.S. She supported Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs.
Currently Klobuchar is in eighth place in Real Clear Politics' aggregate polling numbers with an average of 1.5%.
Amy Jean Klobuchar was born in Plymouth, Minnesota, Klobuchar on May 25, 1960. Her5 mother was a second grade teacher and her father was a sportswriter and columnist for the Star Tribune. Her father was an alcoholic who spent a lot of time away from his family due to his drinking. Her parents divorced when Klobuchar was 15. Her father eventually quit drinking and her parents reconciled a few years after the divorce. Klobuchar received her B.A. degree magna cum laude in political science in 1982 from Yale University, where she was a member of the improv troupe Suddenly Susan. During her time at Yale, Klobuchar spent time as an intern for then Vice President Walter Mondale. Klobuchar enrolled at the University of Chicago Law School, where she received her J. D. in 1985.
After law school, Klobuchar worked as a corporate lawyer, as a prosecutor, and as a partner at the Minnesota law firms Dorsey & Whitney and Gray Plant Mooty, where she specialized in regulatory work in telecommunications law. She was motivated to become politically active after she gave birth and was forced to leave the hospital 24 hours later, despite the fact a that her newborn daughter was born with a condition which made it difficult for her to swallow. That cause Klobuchar to lobby the Minnesota State Legislature for a bill that would guarantee new mothers a 48-hour hospital stay. Minnesota passed the bill and President Bill Clinton later made the policy federal law.
Klobuchar was elected Hennepin County attorney in 1998, and reelected in 2002 unopposed. She was President of the Minnesota County Attorneys Association from November 2002 to November 2003. She was elected as the US Senator for Minnesota in 2006 with 58% of the vote, winning all but eight of Minnesota's 87 counties. She became the first woman to be elected U.S. Senator from Minnesota. (Muriel Humphrey, the state's first female senator and former Second Lady of the United States, was appointed to fill her husband's unexpired term and not elected.) She was re-elected in 2012 with 65.2% of the vote, and again in 2018 by a 24-point margin.
In February 2017, Klobuchar called for an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate ties between Russia and President Donald Trump and his administration. Klobuchar had joined Republican senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham on a trip to the Baltic states and Ukraine. During the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination hearings in 2018, Kavanaugh responded angrily to Klobuchar's questions about whether he had ever experienced memory loss after consuming alcohol, for which he later apologized.
In February 2019 a report from Buzzfeed News alleged that Klobuchar's Congressional office was "controlled by fear, anger, and shame". Interviews with former staffers contained reports that Klobuchar frequently abuses and humiliates her employees, and alleged that she had serious anger management issues. Klobuchar was also listed as one of the "worst bosses in Congress", with an annual staff turnover rate between 2011 and 2016 of 36%, the highest of any senator.
Klobuchar is a member of a number of Senate committees including the Committee on the Judiciary, the Subcommittee Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, the Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, the Subcommittee on Border Security and Immigration, the Subcommittee on Oversight, Agency Action, Federal Rights, and Federal Courts, the Joint Economic Committee, the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet, the Subcommittee on Manufacturing, Trade, and Consumer Protection, the Subcommittee on Transportation and Safety, the Subcommittee on Security, the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, the Subcommittee on Rural Development and Energy, the Subcommittee on Conservation, Forestry and Natural Resources, the Subcommittee on Livestock, Marketing and Agriculture Security, the Committee on Rules and Administration, the Joint Committee on Printing, and the Joint Committee on Library. She is also a member of the Congressional NextGen 9-1-1 Caucus.
On March 30, 2008, Klobuchar announced her endorsement of Senator Barack Obama in the Democratic presidential primary, promising her superdelegate vote for him. In 2016 she was an early supporter of Hillary Clinton's second campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. In 2017, Klobuchar and Bernie Sanders represented the Democratic Party in a televised debate on healthcare policy and the possible repeal of the Affordable Healthcare Act on CNN.
On February 10, 2019, Klobuchar announced that she is running for President and will compete in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries. She has stated that she is pro-choice on abortion, she supports LGBT rights and Obamacare, and is critical of the Iraq War. In 2015 she published an autobiography, The Senator Next Door: A Memoir from the Heartland.
As a U.S. Senator, Klobuchar has made increasing insurance programs for farmers impacted by severe weather and market fluctuations a priority. She also said during the CNN Town Hall that while she likes the idea of a Green New Deal, she does not see it as realistic. She
Klobuchar said that during her first 100 days in office, she would reinstate the Clean Power Plan and gas mileage standards and propose legislation to invest in green jobs and infrastructure. She also said that on her first day, the U.S. would rejoin the Paris Climate Change Agreement.
In 2018, Klobuchar introduced a bill to make online terms of service more clear and requiring more transparency regarding what data companies gather and share. On crime issues, Klobuchar has been criticized for having been a "tough on crime" prosecutor who took part in the "war on drugs" and increased her county's prison population. She is accused of prosecutions which disproportionally affected people of color. Klobuchar says that she favors "common sense" gun safety legislation such as universal background checks.
Klobuchar does not support free, four-year college for all, saying that while she wished she could make it happen, it is not realistic. She proposed allowing students to more easily refinance their student loans and making community colleges free.
In her announcement speech, Klobuchar said she supported an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to overturn the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. FEC. She also wants to restore the Voting Rights Act and automatic voter registration for every 18 year old U.S. citizen. Following Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections, she introduced legislation in 2017 in the Senate to bring more online communications under the oversight of election law, with the goal of increasing the transparency of online election advertising. The bill would also require social media companies to maintain more information on advertisement buyers and who they target. The bill was endorsed by both Facebook and Twitter but failed in the Senate.
Klobuchar does not support the Medicare-for All plan proposed Senator Bernie Sanders. She does support a path to universal healthcare, believing a good first step would be a public option, allowing Americans to opt-in to government-run health insurance instead of finding private plans. She said her priorities would be expanding Medicare and Medicaid, improving the ACA, and creating a public option. She wants to see a reduction in the costs of prescription drugs and has introduced legislation encouraging the development of cheaper, generic versions of name-brand drugs.
On March 28, 2019, Klobuchar announced her infrastructure plan, calling it her "top budget priority" and said she would focus on getting it passed during her first year in office. Her focus is listed as follows:
Repairing and replacing old roads, bridges, and highways, including stabilizing the Highway Trust Fund.
Providing flood protection and updating and modernizing American airports, seaports, and inland waterways.
Expanding public transportation and updating existing rail infrastructure.
Rebuilding public schools and overhauling the U.S.'s housing policy.
Providing internet connection to every U.S. home by 2022.
Building climate-friendly and green infrastructure.
Investing more in drinking and wastewater systems in the U.S. to provide clean water.
Klobuchar estimates that her plan will cost $1 trillion. To pay for this investment, she calls for raising federal investment in infrastructure; assisting state and local governments in getting donations from private companies/individuals; issuing "Move America", "Build America", and clean energy bonds to local and state governments for funding; ensuring infrastructure-designated revenue collected is used for their intended purpose; and instituting corporate tax reforms to bring in additional revenue, including making the corporate tax rate 25%, and increasing tax enforcement efforts.
Klobuchar has cited her concern with the growing national debt as one of her main reasons for opposing proposals such as Medicare-for-All and free college. She said that she doesn't "want to leave that on the shoulders" of the next generation. She has criticized the Trump Administration for allowing the national debt to grow.
During her announcement speech, Klobuchar called for a strengthening of the U.S.'s cyber security and guaranteeing net neutrality nationwide. She also said that by 2022, every U.S. household should be connected to the internet. She has also urged President Trump to quickly renegotiate trade deals and end Chinese tariffs that hurt the agriculture industry in the U.S. She supported Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs.
Currently Klobuchar is in eighth place in Real Clear Politics' aggregate polling numbers with an average of 1.5%.