Feb. 10, 2019 - Sen. Amy Klobuchar (DFL-MN) Announces Candidacy

• Sen. Amy Klobuchar faced little difficulty in her 2018 re-election campaign.  From 2013-18 she raised $10.6 million, spent $8.9 million and had cash on hand of about $4.4 million.  During the midterms Klobuchar kept a relatively low political profile nationally, not doing a lot of travel to stump with candidates or speak at party events around the country.  Hailing from the Midwest and seen as a competent and effective Senator, not overly partisan and able to work across the aisle, Klobuchar looked to be a very strong potential candidate.  It was not clear that she would run until reports of Feb. 5. 

• Klobuchar's "Minnesota nice" image sustained damage shortly before the planned announcement in the form of articles by HuffPost reporting abuse of staff.  See: Molly Redden and Amanda Terkel.  "Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s Mistreatment Of Staff Scared Off Candidates To Manage Her Presidential Bid,"  HuffPost, Feb. 6, 2019; Molly Hensley-Clancy.  "Staffers, Documents Show Amy Klobuchar's Wrath Toward Her Aides." HuffPost, Feb. 8, 2019; and Molly Redden and Amanda Terkel.  "Harry Reid Rebuked Amy Klobuchar For Mistreatment of Staff," HuffPost, Feb. 8, 2019.

• In a move which drew considerable skepticism, the campaign set the announcement  event for outdoors in the middle of winter.  The temperature at the time of the announcement was predicted to be 17 degrees F, and it snowed throughout the event.  According to the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board, "Located on the historic Mississippi riverfront with stunning views of the Minneapolis skyline, Boom Island Park offers a picturesque site for weddings and picnics..."  Per MinnParks, "The park gets its name from the island that it once was. The island was named for the booms that were used to separate logs floated down the Mississippi River..."  The campaign's unorthodox move paid off, resulting in a unique event, with compelling visuals conveying a message of grit and toughness.

Senator Amy Klobuchar
Announcement of Candidacy
Boom Island Park
Minneapolis, MN
February 10, 2019

Wow. Hello everyone! Welcome America to Boom Island. Where are we? [Audience: Boom Island!] Now we don’t let a little snow stop us, we don't let a little cold stop us. Like are you guys even cold? [Audience: No.] Tell the truth.
 
Now when I said that elected leaders should go not just where it’s comfortable, but also where it’s uncomfortable, this is what I meant!
 
Now John and I want to first thank our amazing and incredible team and staff for putting this together. Unbelievable. Also the City of Minneapolis Parks, thank you. All the incredible people that turned out. My friends Tina Smith and Governor Walz. Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, highest ranking Native American state official in our nation. Our congressional delegation, thank you. Mayors, commissioners,legislators. Oh I forgot, my dad, who's ninety years old. And you always want to thank your in-laws, Bill and Marilyn from Mankato.
 
Thank you Dudley D., who traveled with Prince for so many years for being here. Hey, if Prince could do that halftime show in all that rain, I can do this in this snow. Sounds of Blackness, thank you. Rabbi Zimmerman...  Thank you friends from around the country. This is why we live here. Thank you greater Minnesota, thank you our suburbs, and thank you the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

We are gathered here today on this beautiful Mississippi River—America’s great river, running straight through the middle of our country, through the heartland. It takes its name from the Native American word for “The Father of Waters.”
 
It starts small up north. And like so many of you, as a kid, I got the thrill of going up there and claiming that I jumped clear over the Mississippi River.
 
It then gets wider as it flows down here to the Twin Cities, and then to Wisconsin where my mom was born.

And then down to Iowa...a place where we in Minnesota like to go south for the winter. Or at least I do.
 
And then to Illinois, a state that boasts a lot of extraordinary presidents, from Abraham Lincoln to Barack Obama.
 
Then that river meanders down to St. Louis, where you’ll find a big arch, a gateway that honors our country’s pioneers.
 
Onwards to Kentucky and Memphis, Tennessee. Where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. went one April day to join sanitation workers fighting for dignity. Where he preached about the mountaintop and how he’d seen the Promised Land. 

And then to Arkansas and Mississippi. All the way down to New Orleans where the spirit of resilience abounds.

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.

And that is how this city—the Mill City—and our country prospered, right along this river and our nation’s railways and roads, grounded in the common belief that prosperity shared leads to better lives for all. And this is how we became the world’s beacon of democracy, one in which everyone matters.
 
We start in this place where about a mile downriver, on a beautiful summer day, a big bridge collapsed into this river. I said on that day, that a bridge just shouldn’t fall down in the middle of America. Not one of the busiest bridges in our state. Not a bridge just a few blocks from our home where John and Abigail and I drove over nearly every day. But it happened.

And suddenly the eyes of the nation were on our state. And that day America saw in a very visceral way that everyone matters. Everyone.

They saw it in that off-duty firefighter who dove into the murky water, over and over again, looking through those cars and trucks submerged for survivors.
 
They saw it in the story of Paul Eickstadt, the semi-truck driver, who sacrificed his own life by veering off the road to save a school bus full of kids.

They saw it in the school staff member, Jeremy Hernandez, who rescued each and every kid on that miracle school bus as it hung precariously next to a guardrail after plummeting thirty feet.
 
Later, we worked across the aisle to get the federal funding and we rebuilt that I-35W bridge—in just over a year.
 
That, that's community. That’s a shared story. That’s ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
 
But my friends that sense of community is fracturing across our nation right now, worn down by the petty and vicious nature of our politics. We are tired of the shutdowns and the showdowns, of the gridlock and the grandstanding. 
 
Today on this snowy day on this island we say enough is enough. 
 
Our nation, 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. And it has to start with all of us.

My family’s story is like so many of yours. On both my mom and my dad’s side, they arrived in this country with nothing but a suitcase. But they made a home here.

It was cold. (O.K. maybe not as cold as this).

They didn’t know anyone. But like so many immigrants, they wanted a better life for their families.

My grandpa worked 1,500 feet underground in the mines up North on the Iron Range. He never graduated from high school. He saved money in a coffee can in the basement to send my dad to college.

My dad, who's here at age 90, got a two-year degree from Vermillion Junior College, and then finished up at the great University of Minnesota. He became a journalist.

As a young Associated Press reporter he called the 1960 presidential race for John F. Kennedy. He covered the 1968 conventions. He interviewed everyone from Mike Ditka to Hubert Humphrey to Ronald Reagan to Ginger Rogers. Freedom of the press wasn’t some abstract idea to my dad. He embraced it. He lived it.

My mom, a proud union member, taught second grade in the suburbs until she was 70 years old. Her students, now grown, still come up to me on the street and tell me she was their favorite teacher.
 
So today, on an island in the middle of the mighty Mississippi, in our nation’s heartland, at a time when we must heal the heart of our democracy and renew our commitment to the common good, I stand before you as the granddaughter of an iron ore miner, as the daughter of a teacher and a newspaperman, as the first woman elected to the United States Senate from the State of Minnesota, to announce my candidacy for President of the United States.

I’m, I am running for this job for every person who wants their work recognized and rewarded.

I am running for every parent who wants a better world for their kids.
 
I’m running for every student who wants a good education.

For every senior who wants affordable prescription drugs.

For every worker, farmer, dreamer, builder.

I am running for every American

I’m running for you.

And I promise you this: As your President, I will look you in the eye. I will tell you what I think. I will focus on getting things done. That’s what I’ve done my whole life.

And no matter what, I’ll lead from the heart.
 
Okay.

Let me be blunt: for too long leaders in Washington have sat on the sidelines while others try to figure out what to do about our changing economy and its impact on our lives, what to do about the disruptive nature of new technologies, income inequality, the political and geographic divides, the changing climate, the tumult in our world.
 
For a moment, let’s stop seeing those obstacles as obstacles on our path. Did we view the snow as an obstacle? No we did not. Let’s see those obstacles as our path.
 
This is what I mean.
 
There are insidious forces every day that are trying to make it harder for people to vote, trying to drown out our voices with big money.

It is time to organize. Time to galvanize. Time to take back our democracy. It’s time, America!

Time to pass a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and get the dark money out of our politics.

It is time to stop discriminatory actions by restoring the Voting Rights Act.

It is time to pass my bill to automatically register every young person to vote when they turn 18.
 
You see the obstacles that they’re throwing at us with big money and limits on voting, they’re obstacles but they’re also our path. They are how, as Paul Wellstone would tell us, they are how we organize.
 
Here is another one: climate change.

The people, the people are on our side when it comes to climate change. Why? Because like you and I, they believe in science.
 
That’s why in the first 100 days of my administration I will reinstate the clean power rules and the gas mileage standards and put forth sweeping legislation to invest in green jobs and infrastructure.

And on day one, we will rejoin the international climate agreement.
 
The obstacles? They are our path.
 
Here’s another challenge: Way too many politicians have their heads stuck in the sand when it comes to the digital revolution.
 
Hey guys it’s not just coming, it’s here. And if you don’t know the difference between a hack and Slack, it’s time to pull off the digital highway.
 
What would I do as President?
 
We need to put some digital rules of the road into law when it comes to people's privacy.

For too long the big tech companies have been telling you “Don’t worry! We’ve got your back!” while your identities in fact are being stolen and your data is being mined.
 
Our laws need to be as sophisticated as the people who are breaking them. We must revamp our nation’s cybersecurity and guarantee net neutrality for all.

And we need to end the digital divide by pledging to connect every household to the internet by 2022, and that means you rural America. I mean come on, if they can do it in Iceland, we can do it here.
 
We need to train our workers today for the jobs of tomorrow and strengthen our economy by planning ahead. That means respecting and recognizing educational certifications and two-year degrees and making it easier for people to get them.

And yes, and yes that means comprehensive immigration reform. It’s time, America!
 
And by the way we should close those tax loopholes designed by and for the wealthy and bring down our debt and make it easier for workers to afford child care, housing and education. That is what I mean by shared prosperity.
 
But we can’t get there if people can’t afford their health care and that means getting to universal health care and bringing down, bringing down the costs of prescription drugs.

Last week my guest to the State of the Union, who is here with us today, was Nicole Smith-Holt.

Nicole’s son Alec, a 26-year-old restaurant manager from the southern suburbs, aged off his parents’ health insurance.

Three days short of his payday, Alec, a diabetic, wasn’t able to afford his insulin. He tried rationing it to save money. It didn’t work, and he died. This disgrace should never happen in the United States of America. Not with a simple drug that’s been around for nearly a century.
 
The obstacle to change? The big pharma companies think they own Washington. Well they don’t own me. And they don’t own Nicole.

We, we are teaming up to pass meaningful legislation to bring in competitive safe drugs from other countries. To stop big pharma’s practice of paying off generic companies to keep their products off the market. We’re going to harness the negotiating power of 43 million seniors... that’s a lot of negotiating power... and lift the ban on negotiating cheaper prices under Medicare for prescription drugs.
 
I have always believed in doing my job without fear or favor. That’s what I do as a Senator and that’s what I did as a prosecutor. And that means not only convicting the guilty but protecting the innocent.

That’s why I have and why I will always continue to advocate for criminal justice reform.

That’s why, in a state where we all value hunting and fishing and the great outdoors, I amm not afraid to join the vast majority of Americans, including many gun owners, to stand up to the gun lobby and put universal background checks and commonsense gun legislation into law. It is time, America!
 
And a safer world isn't just about what we do here at home. Even if you want to isolate yourself from the rest of the world, the rest of the world won’t let you.

International problems come banging at your door, just as opportunities come knocking.

We need to stand strong — and consistently — with our allies. We need to be clear in our purpose. We must respect our front line troops, diplomats and intelligence officers... who are there every day risking their lives for us...they deserve better than foreign policy by Tweet.
 
And one last obstacle that we must overcome to move forward together. Stop the fear-mongering and stop the hate. We may come from different places. We may pray in different ways. We may look different. And love different. But all live in the same country of shared dreams.
 
In Minnesota we have the biggest Somali population in the country. And we are proud of that community. A few years ago at the height of the angry rhetoric, a Somali-American family of four went out to dinner right here in Minnesota. This guy walked by, he looked down at them and said “you four go home. You go home to where you came from.”
 
And the little girl looked up at her mom and said “Mom, I don’t want to go home. You said we could eat out for dinner tonight. I don’t want to eat dinner at home.” You think of the innocent words of that little girl. She only knows one home. And that's our state. She only knows one home, and that's the United States of America.
 
Walt Whitman, the great American poet, once wrote these words: “I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear.” For Whitman those were the songs of the mechanics, the carpenters, the masons, the shoemakers.

And those carols are still being sung today.  They are now also the songs of our sisters and brothers, a chorus of different faiths, races, creeds and ways of life.
 
E pluribus unum. Out of one— Out of many, one. It is more than a motto, America. It is the North Star of our democracy. It is the North Star of our effort.
 
I’m asking you to join us on this campaign. It is a homegrown one. I don't know if you can even see our number because of the snow. But you can text "Amy" at 91990. I don’t have a political machine. I don’t come from money. But what I do have is this: I have grit.

I have family. I have friends. I have neighbors. And I have all of you who are willing to come out in the middle of winter, all of you who took the time to watch us today from home, all of you who are willing to stand up and say people matter.
 
I’m asking you to not look down and not to look away any more. I’m asking you to look up. To look at each other. To look to the future before us. Let us rise to the occasion and meet the challenges of our day.

Let us cross the river of our divides and walk across our sturdy bridge to higher ground.
 
As one faith leader reminded me this week, to pursue the good, we must believe that good will prevail. I do believe it and so do you.
 
So let’s join together, as one nation, indivisible, under God, and pursue the good.
 
Thank you and God bless America.

[23m40s]

What to Expect at Senator Klobuchar’s Announcement in Minneapolis

Klobuchar: “Let us cross the river of our divides and walk across our sturdy bridge to higher ground.”

Senator Klobuchar will make her announcement tomorrow in Minneapolis on the Mississippi River, which runs straight through the middle of our country, through the heartland.

Thousands of supporters and friends are expected to join Senator Klobuchar and her family for this special announcement on a beautiful February day. (And if you ask a Minnesotan, 17 degrees is really not that cold.) Over 100 volunteers will hand out hand warmers, cookies, and hot cocoa.

DJ Dudley D, who traveled with Prince for many years, will provide music and entertainment, as well as the Grammy Award-winning Sounds of Blackness from the Twin Cities.

Senator Klobuchar will be joined by U.S. Senator Tina Smith, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, Duluth Mayor Emily Larson, Moorhead Mayor Jonathan Judd as well as commissioners and legislators from across the state.


Excerpts from Senator Amy Klobuchar’s remarks, as prepared for delivery:

We are gathered here today on the Mississippi River—America’s great river, running straight through the middle of our country, through the heartland. It takes its name from a Native American word for “The Father of Waters.” … 

The Mississippi River… all our rivers connect us… to one another. To our shared story. For that is how this country was founded, with patriots who saw more that united them than divided them.

And that is how this city—the Mill City—and our country prospered, right along this river and our nation’s railways and roads, grounded in the common belief that prosperity shared leads to better lives for all. And this is how we became the world’s beacon of democracy, one in which everyone matters.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We start in this place where about a mile downriver, on a beautiful summer day, a big bridge collapsed into this river … And suddenly the eyes of the nation were on our state. And that day America saw in a very visceral way that everyone matters. Everyone.

They saw it in the off-duty firefighter who dove into the murky water, over and over again, looking for survivors among dozens of trucks and cars.

They saw it in the story of Paul Eickstadt, the semi-truck driver, who sacrificed his own life by veering off the road to save a school bus full of kids.

They saw it in the school staff member, Jeremy Hernandez, who rescued each and every kid on that miracle school bus as it hung precariously next to a guardrail after plummeting thirty feet.

Later, we worked across the aisle to get the federal funding and we rebuilt that I-35W bridge—in just over a year.

That’s community. That’s a shared story. That’s ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

But that sense of community is fracturing across our nation right now, worn down by the petty and vicious nature of our politics. We are all tired of the shutdowns and the putdowns, the gridlock and the grandstanding. Our nation must be governed not from chaos but from opportunity. Not by wallowing over what’s wrong, but my marching inexorably toward what’s right.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My family’s story is like many of yours. On both my mom and my dad’s side, they arrived in this country with nothing but a suitcase. But they made a home here….They didn’t know anyone. But like so many immigrants, they wanted a better life for their families.

My grandpa worked 1,500 feet underground in the mines up North on the Iron Range. He never graduated from high school. He saved money in a coffee can in the basement and sent my dad to college.

My dad, whose here with us today at age 90, got a two-year degree from Vermillion Junior College, and then finished up at the University of Minnesota. He became a journalist….

My mom, a proud union member, taught second grade in the suburbs until she was 70 years old. Her students, now grown, still come up to me on the street and tell me she was their favorite teacher.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So today, on an island in the middle of the mighty Mississippi, in our nation’s heartland, at a time when we must heal the heart of our democracy and renew our commitment to the common good, 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…

...I will look you in the eye. I will tell you what I think. I will focus on getting things done. That’s what I’ve done my whole life. And no matter what, I’ll lead from the heart.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Let me be blunt: for too long leaders in Washington have sat on the sidelines while others try to figure out what to do about our changing economy and its impact on our lives, what to do about the disruptive nature of new technologies, income inequality, the political and geographic divides, the changing climate, the tumult in our world.

For a moment, let’s stop seeing those obstacles as obstacles on our path. Let’s see those obstacles as our path.

This is what I mean.

There are insidious forces every day that are trying to make it harder for people to vote, trying to drown out our voices with big money.

 

It’s time to organize. Time to galvanize. Time to take back our democracy. It’s time, America!

 

Time to pass a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and get the dark money out of our politics.

It’s time to stop discriminatory actions by restoring the Voting Rights Act.

Time to pass my bill to automatically register every young person when they turn 18.

 

You see the obstacles they’re throwing at us with big money and limits on voting, they’re obstacles but they’re also our path.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I’m asking you to join us on this campaign. It’s a homegrown one. I don’t have a political machine. I don’t come from money. But what I do have is this: I have grit. I have family. I have friends. I have neighbors. I have all of you who are willing to come out in the middle of the winter, all of you who took the time to watch us today, all of you who are willing to stand up and say people matter.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I’m asking you to not look down and not look away. I’m asking you to look up. To look at each other. To look to the future before us. Let us rise to the occasion and meet the challenges of our day.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Let us cross the river of our divides and walk across our sturdy bridge to higher ground.

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U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar to Make Major Announcement in Minneapolis on Sunday

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar will make a major announcement on Sunday, February 10 in Minneapolis, Minnesota at Boom Island Park, where she will be joined by fellow Minnesotans and supporters.


Klobuchar will make her announcement in Minnesota, where she built a strong grassroots organization and garnered over 60 percent of the vote - winning all eight congressional districts and 42 counties that voted for Trump in 2016 - in her reelection bid in 2018, and led a state ticket that experienced historic victories: winning the Governor's office, every statewide constitutional office, took back control of the Minnesota State House for the first time since 2014 and elected five women to represent Minnesota in Congress.


The event will open to the public at 1:00 p.m., and the program is scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m. Hot cocoa, cookies, warming houses and live entertainment will all be part of the day's events.


Who: U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar

What: Sen. Amy Klobuchar to make a major announcement in Minneapolis

Where: Boom Island Park, 724 Sibley Street NE, Minneapolis, MN 55413

When: Sunday, February 10. Event opens to public at 1:00 p.m., program starts at 1:30 pm

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