Over 20 Democratic presidential hopefuls are attempting to remove President Donald Trump from the White House in 2020.
Getting to Know Sen. Amy Klobuchar
Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s (D-Minn.) 2020 presidential campaign faces the same dilemma that candidates like Sen. Cory Booker, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke and former HUD secretary Julian Castro face.
That dilemma is a lack of resources and a lack of success in the recent polls.
Nevertheless, after challenging former Vice President Joe Biden on his record regarding racial issues and being one of the only Democratic presidential nominees to realize that undocumented immigrants cannot be refused medical care at emergency rooms she has made herself more of a household name amongst Democratic voters.
Her tussle with Vice President Biden led to an increase in media attention, an increase in poll numbers and an increase of about $2 million in online donations to her campaign.
Another viral moment at the Democratic debates on July 30 and July 31 might help boost her profile again.
“She has, in my opinion, a very good case to make,” said Connor Farrell, CEO of Left Rising, a progressive fundraising company based in the state of Michigan.
Left Rising does not work with any presidential campaign.
Farrell said that Klobuchar’s recent fundraising accomplishments places her in second place amongst the second tier of Democratic hopefuls in fundraising, which include Sen. Booker and former Rep. O’Rourke.
Booker raised the most money of the second tier candidates with Klobuchar in second place in fundraising.
The top tier of Democratic presidential hopefuls includes Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Kamala Harris, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind.
“I’m not from a big state and have not run for president before like Sanders and Biden,” Sen. Klobuchar said. “The fact that we have 35 staff members in Iowa and over 20 in New Hampshire—that’s good. I feel good.”
Klobuchar now hopes Democratic voters will feel good about her potential presidency, which is more moderate than some of her more popular progressive opponents.
She labels herself as a Midwestern pragmatist as opposed to the coastal liberals currently leading the Democratic presidential pack.
If elected as the 46th President of the United States of America, Klobuchar has already mapped out her first 100 days in the Oval Office.
“On day one, we will get back into the International Climate Change Agreement and restore the Clean Power Plan and work to bring back the gas mileage standards,” the senator from Minnesota said. “Those are things you can do without passing a law.”
Klobuchar plans to do those things by reversing executive orders instituted by President Donald Trump.
The current President rolled back some of former President Barack Obama’s environmental agreements via executive order.
As president, Klobuchar would go further than President Obama in addressing the skyrocketing prices of prescription drugs and raising the federal minimum wage.
She would try to bring down the prices of prescription drugs by stopping the practice of “pay for delay,” in which large pharmaceutical companies pay to keep generic prescription drugs off the market.
People can purchase generic drugs at a much cheaper price than their name brand counterparts.
On the minimum wage debate, she said, “Let’s increase the minimum wage for federal contractors to $15 an hour—something you can do in the first 100 days—while we work to pass an increase to the federal minimum wage in year one.”
While Klobuchar called Trump’s tweets about the four progressive congresswomen of color known as “The Squad” in which he called for them to go back to their home country, racist, she does not feel that most of Trump’s supporters are rampant racists.
She just feels like many of Trump’s ardent supporters feel left out and some might look to him as a voice of their frustrations.
Many of Trump’s 2016 supporters saw their fortunes change when factory jobs left rural America and retreated overseas.
Trump vowed to bring those factory jobs back to middle America.
“I don’t think they’re all racists by any means,” Klobuchar stated. “You vote for change, and that’s why in the debates, I was surprised that more of my colleagues didn’t do this, but…I think it’s important to make the case, not only for an optimistic economic agenda, which I’ve been doing and I’ve done today, but also for these unmet promises. So I think you have to do both things.”
Another area in which middle America struggles is with healthcare.
Klobuchar favors universal healthcare for all, which she believes can become a reality via a public option, which would expand Medicare and Medicaid.
The senator supports Obamacare but has some ways in which to reduce costs for consumers such as providing cost-sharing reductions, making it easier for states to put reinsurance in place and continuing to put in place delivery system reform.
As president, Klobuchar would also address mental health issues by prioritizing people with mental health struggles by launching new preventive and early intervention programs, making treatment more accessible and providing a path to sustainable recovery.
Klobuchar has spoken against the restrictive abortion bans passed in several states in which abortions become illegal after the mother realizes she is pregnant.
She calls those bans unconstitutional and dangerous to a woman’s health.
As president, Klobuchar vows to fight to protect the health of women across America.
Klobuchar believes that all Americans should share prosperity by providing a livable wage, making college affordable and providing quality childcare.
She wants to increase teacher pay and funding for public schools across the country.
Klobuchar also wants to make sure the high cost of college does not prevent people from pursuing higher education.
She wants to make sure college graduates can refinance their student loans at a lower rate, provide loan forgiveness for those that have jobs that are in demand, expand Pell grants and provide tuition free community colleges degrees and technical certificates.
Klobuchar also wants to end housing discrimination and make sure that everyone can afford livable dwelling in a safe environment.
She also believes that fixing the broken school system from early childhood through high school can help with the broken economic system, which disproportionately and adversely affects communities of color.
Although communities of color and low-income communities face a dilemma because of a lack of funds, Klobuchar’s campaign faces those same challenges.
Without money, ideas remain ideas and not implemented changes.
