Amy Klobuchar Has a Pete Buttigieg Problem
PHILADELPHIA—This could be Amy Klobuchar’s moment.
The La Colombe coffee shop in the trendy Fishtown neighborhood was brimming with Democrats on Monday night, all waiting to hear from the senator from Minnesota turned presidential candidate. Young and old—and almost entirely white—they milled around wearing bright-green Amy for America buttons and dunking soft-pretzel bites in honey mustard. Most of them told me they’re looking for a moderate candidate: someone thoughtful, someone with substance, someone who doesn’t lean too far one way or the other. They haven’t totally decided whom they’ll support in the presidential primary. But they’re Klobuchar-curious.
Klobuchar has been experiencing a boomlet of late: In less than a week after the last Democratic debate, during which she for refusing to explain exactly how she would pay for, and she’s gotten from lawmakers in Iowa than any other presidential candidate. Recently, Klobuchar has more forcefully positioned herself as somewhere between the front-runners in the race—a moderate alternative to Warren and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont who can attract the voters wary of former Vice President Joe Biden.
