Amy Klobuchar: Future of the Democratic Party?

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)

The Democratic Party is in a crisis, as anyone with half a pulse coming out of Washington will tell you.  The Democrats are wondering how to deal with a president that is wildly unpopular.  The blue state Democrats who did survive reelection (principally Govs. Dan Malloy and John Hickenlooper) are lambasting the national party for not embracing the president.  Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a former DNC Chair, is angry at the national committee for not running on the economy.  Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are at odds with the President, and quite frankly with reality in terms of not thinking this was a damning wave election (I was ashamed to read that in regard to Pelosi, who should know better, and my opinion of her took a serious hit with that silliness-it was most definitely a wave, just ask all of the incumbents in your caucus who just lost their jobs).  Even Hillary Clinton doesn’t seem the Grade A certainty that she once was to run (the February paid speech has me a bit nervous, and a lot of people in Washington nervous as well).

This all being said, the Democratic Party’s biggest problem continues to be a lack of a bench.  Rising stars such as Alison Lundergan Grimes, Anthony Brown, Michelle Nunn, and Wendy Davis went down in flames on Election Day this past year, and very few people seem to have come in their place.  This is why I think it may pay off to look at a rising star who won reelection two years ago, as she may be the most undersung and exciting incumbent in the current Congress for the Democrats: senior Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar.

Klobuchar, in my opinion, has become the great hope of the Democratic Party, and perhaps its most important asset in the Senate.  While Elizabeth Warren is out lighting up the stump with speeches, Klobuchar has risen through the ranks at nearly the speed (they both were recently appointed to the leadership team), and doesn’t have the “liberal” tag that Warren gets bandied with despite similar voting records.  Klobuchar, a former County Attorney for Minnesota’s largest county, is wildly popular in the Gopher State, and won a landslide 30-point victory in 2012 four years after the Democrat in the Senate race only won by a few hundred votes.

Klobuchar is also great on the stump.  She’s funny, smart, and wildly approachable.  If there weren’t such unfortunate anathema amongst the Washington establishment over having two women on the same ticket, I’d think she’d be at the top of Hillary’s veep list.  Klobuchar is also relatively young (she turned 54 this past year), and seems very ambitious, frequently campaigning for her fellow Democrats, and showing an interest in issues beyond her state’s borders.

That being said-where does she fit in, and how does she get a leg-up?  Being a Senate leader is not a great avenue to becoming President, if that’s her ultimate goal, and without an obvious perch like being Vice President, she has to distinguish herself in the most exclusive club in the world.  I think the best place for her to do that would be to jump into the race for the White House early if Hillary doesn’t run.  Klobuchar may be able to deter Warren and/or her close friend Kirsten Gillibrand from entering the race, and even if she doesn’t, in a race without a frontrunner, she might be able to pull traction as a viable option for both the middle and the left in a similar way to Howard Dean in 2016.  Without Hillary in the race, in fact, Klobuchar is my dark horse candidate for President (in a similar way to how I think Scott Walker is a much stronger candidate than pundits give him credit for on the GOP’s side).  Could we have a presidential race that pits candidates from neighboring states this year?  Could be…and it might not be because Hillary and Chris Christie live so near each other.