Klobuchar makes final pitch before Iowa caucuses
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After a final, two-day dash through Iowa, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar ran out of time on the ground Sunday and found herself back in Washington as a make-or-break moment of her Democratic presidential bid arrived.
Klobuchar placed a big bet on Iowa to propel her presidential campaign forward: Making more than 200 stops, visiting all 99 counties and sinking millions of dollars into the effort.
“That is what grassroots politics is about. That is what Iowa politics is about. It is not about the biggest bank account. It’s not about the most-famous name. It’s about whether we give a chance to someone who we know in our heart could lead, who we know in our heart could win,” Klobuchar said in a closing speech in Mason City on Sunday afternoon
She pleaded with supporters and those on the fence “to be there for me tomorrow.”
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Her caucus showing will have a huge bearing on her standing in the presidential race.
She vowed she would move ahead to New Hampshire no matter how Monday night’s caucus came out and even released an itinerary for the week. But the question is whether she would find herself moving more into the lead pack or fading from contention.
After spending most of the past two weeks in Washington for President Trump’s impeachment trial, Klobuchar had a short window to make her last appeal in person. She thrust herself into a seven-stop tour by bus and by plane.
“We have been everywhere in Iowa. I’m trying to make up for being gone for 10 days in two days,” she said to a crowd in Beaverdale on Saturday.
She popped in on a Super Bowl event at a barbecue joint before heading for the airport to be back for the trial’s resumption on Monday.
At the rally in Mason City, she repeated her pitch that she is the Democrat best able to defeat Trump in the Midwest and said her proposals represented an achievable path forward.
Polls have shown Klobuchar’s Iowa support rising in recent weeks, even though she is still running fifth behind Sen. Bernie Sanders, former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Peter Buttigieg.
Much of her final push had her away from Des Moines, the state capital and biggest city.
Klobuchar’s strategy depends on performing well in regional centers and rural towns. The theory is that voters in those places are more receptive to her appeal to moderation than a sharp lurch left.
Waterloo insurance agent Mary Potter came to size up Klobuchar in Cedar Falls. At 76 years old, the lifelong Republican is ready to attend her first Democratic caucus.
“I’m switching teams until we get rid of Trump,” Potter said.
Coming in, Potter had a few Democratic candidates on her short list, including Klobuchar.
“She is a brilliant person. She is a very level-headed person. I think she’d be a very good leader. I think she listens to people. She’s got ideas. She’s probably, in my opinion, the smartest one running.”
After the senator’s rally, Potter was sold.
“She needs to be there. There’s no question,” she said while acknowledging Klobuchar was something of a long shot. “I don’t know how it’s going to happen.”
Retired social worker Sally Lowe of Waterloo is on board. Klobuchar first came on her radar during the confirmation hearings into now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh and her impression of the senator solidified during the Iowa campaign.
“Just the way she conducts herself. She’s not bombastic. She’s not trying to pull down other people or other candidates,” Lowe said. “She just speaks clearly.
Success on caucus night is often measured against expectations coming in. And second choices can be a big deal because the Democratic Party’s viability rules allow for on-the-spot switches of candidate support after an initial tally.
Many Democratic voters were undecided or willing to change their minds late in the race, according to polls. And turnout is key metric to watch — whether it will be in the 170,000 range that Democrats saw four years ago or rival the record of about 240,000 in 2008.
Retired engineer Roger Eggenburg of North Liberty caucused for Sanders in 2016 but was looking for something else this time around.
“A pragmatic path is what’s going to be most effective of where we need to be,” he said.
Eggenburg said Klobuchar fits the bill. But Eggenburg will caucus Monday for Biden.
“I kinda hope Amy is Biden’s running mate,” he said.
In these last days, it’s been as much about the shoe-leather side of campaigning as the rallies.
In Mason City, Ben Glaser grabbed a stack of campaign materials and his phone loaded with names and data about voters Klobuchar hopes to turn out. Glaser is a regional organizing director and has walked these streets many times over, this time in a fresh layer of snow.
On this morning, he left more materials hanging from door knobs than he handed to people who were home. Glaser says the focus has narrowed as the vote nears. It’s about pressing those leaning in Klobuchar’s direction to get them to commit to caucus.
“If they are not supporting our candidate at this point and they’re not planning to caucus, we’re probably not going to persuade them at this point and we want to spend our time talking to the people that we can work with,” Glaser said as he worked his way down one block.
People like retired physician Steve Krogh are in Klobuchar’s sights. He had signs for six candidates in his yard.
Krogh said he wishes he could combine a slice of each — the stature of Biden, the fresh energy of Buttigieg, the Midwestern appeal of Klobuchar, the provocative ideas of entrepreneur Andrew Yang and the passionate following that Warren and Sanders enjoy.
“I would be pleased to see any of those folks in the Oval Office,” Krogh said.
As of Friday, Krogh had slimmed his picks to three: Buttigieg, Klobuchar and Warren.
He said his ultimate vote could depend on keeping one of those three viable.
For Klobuchar, getting voters like Krogh to break her way Monday night will determine if she leaves Iowa with a head of steam or just hanging on.
At several stops this weekend, Klobuchar was almost wistful of what the campaign conclusion could have been like had the impeachment trial and the nomination calendar not collided.
“I did not think that I would be spending the last two weeks in Washington,” she said, envisioning instead “doing a redux of my 99-county tour.”