Strong suspicions that Senator Amy Klobuchar would run for president in 2020 were confirmed on a freezing Sunday afternoon in Minneapolis, just 11 miles from her hometown of Plymouth, Minnesota.
“For every worker, farmer, dreamer, and builder, I am running. I am running for every American,” she proclaimed, pledging to get “dark money” out of politics, institute automatic voter registration for 18 year olds, and rejoin the Paris accord to deal with climate change.
The weather provided a steady, sticky snowfall but a relatively temperate 17F that brought supporters out by the thousands, undeterred. “It could be 30 [degrees] below – doesn’t matter,” Steve Baribdau, 68, of Minneapolis’s “twin city” of Saint Paul said, laughing at the idea that the weather could prevent him or the cluster of fellow Teamsters, a union group focused on labor rights, he came with.
In opening remarks that set the tone for the announcement, Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey praised Klobuchar’s ability to “get things done” and the mitten and snow pants-clad crowd erupted in cheers.
A hundred meandering volunteers handed out cookies reading “Team Amy” in green icing, hot chocolate, cider and hand warmers to help attendees stave off the chill. The buoyant festivities bustled with local entertainment including the Twin Cities’ Sounds of Blackness and a local high school drumming team.
Her speech relied on a metaphor tied to the event’s Boom Island location, situated along the Mississippi river and part of Minneapolis’ highly-decorated parks system, to form her foundational message of unity. “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,” she said.
Klobuchar referred to the devastating 2007 collapse of the I-35W bridge along the same river. She shared tales of heroic and selfless Minnesotans such as a truck driver who lost his life in an effort to save a school bus filled with children on the bridge that August day, creating a contrast to political divisiveness.
