Caucus Hot Dish: Amy Klobuchar kicks off final Iowa campaign push

Welcome to a special edition of Hot Dish, the Star Tribune's weekday newsletter on all things Minnesota politics. We're publishing special editions through the weekend ahead of the Iowa caucuses. You can sign up for daily dispatches straight to your inbox at www. startribune.com/hotdishpolitics.

Good morning from a van on I-80. As I write this, I'm en route to the eastern Iowa city of Bettendorf for Amy Klobuchar's first campaign event of the day. The Minnesota senator has returned to the Hawkeye State from Washington to spend the day criss-crossing Iowa in a final blitz before Monday's caucus.

Here's a look at the planned itinerary:

10:00 AM: Crawford Brew Works in Bettendorf

2:00 PM: The Marquee in Sioux City

5:30PM Cedar Falls Women's Club in Cedar Falls

8:30 PM: Franklin Jr. High in Beaverdale

Follow along on Twitter: @ToreyVanOot , @PatrickTCondon & @GSPPhoto.

For today's paper, I talked to Minnesotans flooding the state for their candidate of choice. Some have been coming for weeks. Klobuchar in particular has gotten a hand from elected officials back home who are backing her bid. In addition to the extra manpower, the surrogates help candidates connect with voters they might not otherwise reach. DFL state Sen. Melisa Franzen, who came down to phone-bank with Sen. Karla Bigham recently, told me she's done Spanish-language interviews here. Franzen's also been lobbying a constituency with which she might have some extra sway: her husband's family.

"I tried to get my brother-in-law to get his parents to caucus for Amy and he's working on that," she told me this week. "It's a family affair."

Surrogates have become particularly important for Klobuchar and other U.S. senators who spent the week in Washington for the impeachment trial as their rivals hit the trail to make closing arguments to Iowans.

Klobuchar's line-up of prominent campaign subs Friday included St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and Duluth Mayor Emily Larson, who I caught up with at a coffee shop in Ames. Iowa state Rep. Ross Wilburn was also on hand for the event.

"I hear in the rural parts of Iowa that people are really talking about her," he said. "She's gaining momentum and this is the time when you really want to gain momentum."

We'll get a better sense of whether that momentum is real tonight, when the final Iowa Poll drops at 7 p.m.

Wilburn is one of at least 18 sitting state legislators backing Klobuchar's bid -- a tally the campaign says is the most of any candidate. The former Kamala Harris supporter announced his endorsement just last week. Speaking to a small group gathered at a coffee shop in Ames on Friday, he told a story that underscored the time and resources Klobuchar has poured into the state over the last year: Last July, she showed up to help him campaign for an open state House seat, even after his potential Republican opponent dropped out.

"She came anyway," he told me after the event. "she made a commitment and she followed through with it and that builds trust and appreciation."

We'll have more stories from the trail throughout the weekend. For now, here's a look at some other stories from caucusland that might be of interest to Minnesota readers: