2020 Election: Meet Amy Klobuchar

Meet Amy Klobuchar, wife of John Bessler, mother of one, and another of the Democratic candidates for the 2020 Presidential Election. She is an American attorney and has been the senior Senator of Minnesota since 2006. Prior to being a Senator, Klobuchar was a corporate lawyer and was a partner at Dorsey & Whitney and Gray Plant Mooty. There, she specialized in regulatory work in telecommunications law until she became the Hennepin County Attorney in 1998.

Klobuchar attended Yale University and studied political science. She graduated magna cum laude in 1982. Afterwards, she enrolled at the University of Chicago Law School and received her Juris Doctor in 1985. Her first run at a public office position was in 1998 as Hennepin County Attorney and was reelected in 2002 with no opposition. In 2006, she ran and was elected Senator for the state of Minnesota.

On February 10, 2019, Amy Klobuchar announced her bid into the 2020 Presidential Election. In an article on CNN.com, she is quoted to have said in her announcement speech, “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, to announce my candidacy for President of the United States." The democratic candidate ties in her family’s history of middle class working people to create a connection between herself and potential supporters.

Klobuchar hones in on seven issues that drive her platform: cybersecurity, climate change, healthcare, prescription drug reform, education, election reform, and immigration. With cybersecurity, Klobuchar believes in digital rules to help people’s privacy. Since the 2016 election, she has championed the cause and along with Senators John McCain (Rep-Arizona) and Mark Warner (Dem-Virginia), the Honest Ads Act was introduced. The purpose of this law was to prevent foreign interference in elections and improve the transparency of online political advertisements. After this bill, Google, Twitter, and Facebook now all mark their political ads with a "paid for by X." She is also a supporter of net neutrality. Klobuchar’s support for climate change was announced during her presidential bid speech. She claims that  “In the first 100 days of my administration….I will reinstate the Clean Power rules and 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 Clean Power Plan was created during the Obama era to cut greenhouse gas emissions. This plan was quickly replaced upon Trump’s arrival into office. The Minnesota Senator is a supporter of single-payer universal government healthcare coverage. She is also fighting to expand Medicaid to Americans 55-years-old and over. There has been no word as to whether or not she is a supporter of Senator Sanders’ Medicare for All Act.

Because she is the daughter of an elementary school teacher, education is a major passion for the Senator. She is determined to introduce STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education into more schools. The Innovate America Act was created in 2015 to award states funding to create STEM-focused speciality schools or bring STEM programs into preexisting schools. For students with debt from college, she was co-sponsor of the Bank on Student Emergency Loan Refinancing Act and the Reducing Education Debt Act ; both acts would allow students to refinance their loans at a lower interest rate. There was also The Skills Investment Act which would let Americans use their "529" accounts (tax-advantaged saving plans that let Americans save for future education costs) for technical and vocational education programs, instead of just four-year colleges. Klobuchar has called for a wide-range of election reforms. Some of those reforms are related to her tech reform platform while others include plans for voter registration. This would include introduction to legislation that would automatically register eligible voters when they turn 18. She has also pledged to not accept donations from corporate political committees or lobbyists. Her last policy is focused on immigration. She has increased the number of temporary work visas for undocumented immigrants. In 2013, a bipartisan immigration bill was introduced that attempted to create a pathway for more undocumented immigrants to gain citizenship through reforming the visa system. There have been no comments on abolishing ICE, but there is talk about reforming the agency.

Amy Klobuchar wants you to know she is ready to get to work for everyday people like you and I.