Live in prime time from the first night of the Democratic National Convention, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar got a plum speaking role Monday to talk up Joe Biden's presidential potential while raising her own political profile.
"Unity isn't about settling. It's about striving for something more," Klobuchar said in a convention speech that echoed some of the pragmatic themes of her own bid for the Democratic presidential nomination earlier this year. "It isn't the ends, it's the means. It's how we get stuff done. Unity is about reaching up … toward a higher purpose, a better future for all of us."
Klobuchar secured the speaking slot at this year's unusual Democratic convention, which is transpiring almost entirely in cyberspace because of the coronavirus pandemic. Klobuchar spoke from the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul, with the State Capitol dome as a backdrop, delivering a short speech that started just after 9 p.m. — the time when all three broadcast TV networks picked up an hour of live convention coverage.
It may have been Klobuchar's biggest viewing audience ever. "You have to build a relationship with an audience you can't see, and there's no applause, no laughter, no way to read the crowd," Klobuchar said in an interview Monday afternoon.
But she said years of remote TV interviews were good training for the unique challenge presented by the virtual convention.
Other speakers on the first night included Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Govs. Andrew Cuomo of New York and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, and former First Lady Michelle Obama.
Klobuchar's appearance signified the importance of Minnesota and the rest of the Midwestern battleground for the Democrats' chances of defeating President Donald Trump in November.
"She represents the part of the country that we have to win," said Matt Barron, a Massachusetts-based Democratic strategist whose focus has been helping the party win back rural voters. "We can talk all we want about Texas, Georgia, Arizona — but if we don't win Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, we're probably not going to defeat Trump."
Klobuchar's speech also touched on issues facing rural America, a frequent topic of her presidential bid and a continued emphasis as she's returned her focus to the U.S. Senate after dropping out of the race just before March 3 Super Tuesday primaries and endorsing Biden.
Barron said he could see Klobuchar as a Cabinet member in a Biden administration. "She would make a great secretary of agriculture," he said.
Ron Harris, a Democratic National Committee member from Minneapolis, said the party also wants to feature "that we're a big-tent party with room for lots of ideologies. Amy is more to the center, and we want to make sure we're showcasing the broad range of perspectives in the country."
As a onetime rival to Biden in the Democratic presidential contest, Klobuchar helped her standing with the Biden camp by helping him win the primary in Minnesota, where Sanders and other Democratic contenders had bigger campaign organizations.
"Joe ran for the same reasons I did when I announced my campaign in the middle of that blizzard on the banks of the Mississippi River: to cross the river of our divides, to bring this nation back together, to be a president for all of America," Klobuchar told the convention.
Though much of her speech was given over to talking up Biden, Klobuchar also attacked Trump. She stressed the importance of protecting the right to vote and decried Trump's attacks on the U.S. Postal Service at a time when more Americans want to vote by mail because of the pandemic.
"You know, the president may hate the Post Office," Klobuchar said. "But he's still going to have to send them a change of address card in January."
Patrick Condon • 612-673-4413