A Minnesota Senator will speak in Clear Lake this evening at a fundraiser for local Democrats.
Senator Amy Klobuchar’s appearance at the 10th Annual “Wing Ding” fundraiser for Democrats in seven northern Iowa counties has fueled speculation about her White House aspirations. Pella, Iowa, native Jessica Vanden Berg was the manager of Klobuchar’s 2006 campaign for the U.S. Senate.
“Clearly she’s qualified to do anything she wants to do,” Vanden Berg said recently. “She has a lot of benefits of being in good proximity to our state.”
Klobuchar will be appearing at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, about 30 miles south of the Minnesota border. Vanden Berg called Klobuchar the “most popular senator in the country.”
“If she wants to run for president, she would be an amazing candidate,” Vanden Berg said.
Klobuchar, a former county attorney, won all but eight of Minnesota’s 87 counties in the 2006 campaign Vanden Berg managed, becoming the first woman to be elected a United State senator from the state of Minnesota. The prospect of electing the country’s first female president has many Democrats looking to Hillary Clinton. Stephanie Schriock, president of EMILY’s List — a group that supports female candidates who back abortion rights, said if Clinton doesn’t run in 2016, there are plenty of other well-qualified women who could.
“There are great women in the pipeline ready to be the next president, whether it is Hillary Clinton or if it is Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota or Kirsten Gillibrand — I know they love when I throw their names out,” Schriock said recently in Des Moines. ”
Klobuchar’s margin of victory in her 2006 Minnesota senate race was 20 percent. Vanden Berg — Klobuchar’s former campaign manager — noted that in 2012 Klobuchar won reelection by an even wider margin of more than 34 percent.
“She solidified her standing across the country and people deeply respect her convictions, so I think if she is going to want to run, she is going to be very formidable,” Vanden Berg said.
Vanden Berg and Schriock made their comments at a recent “Madam President” forum in Des Moines. The annual “Wing Ding” event in Clear Lake has featured Democratic candidates like John Edwards in 2006 and Barack Obama in 2007.