Bernie Sanders

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders encouraged a crowd of supporters in Iowa City last night to stay involved in politics. Sanders is on a tour, promoting a new book.

“The only antidote to big money control over our political process is when millions of people get involved in every and any way,” Sanders said.

Sanders touched on the familiar themes from his 2016 presidential campaign and he warned the Democratic Party must change or it will continue to lose elections at the state and local level.

“What we need to do is bring fundamental reforms to the Democratic Party,” Sanders said. “We need to open the doors, we need to invite working people and young people with their energy and idealism into the Democratic Party.”

His book — “Bernie Sanders Guide to Political Revolution” — is written for teenage readers.

(Reporting in Iowa City by Iowa Public Radio’s Katarina Sostaric)

Amy Klobuchar

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar told a crowd of more than 800 in Ames last night that women in politics must resist, insist and persist.

“Women have to look out for each other,” Klobuchar said at the event organized by the Iowa State University Center for Women and Politics. “…That means trying to encourage each other here at the school, trying to encourage each other to run for office.”

Klobuchar argued electing more women will require more than just dwelling on the lack of women in office today.

“People don’t want to just hear — I know this from my election — ‘Oh, we need a woman. Oh, we haven’t had a woman. Oh, we need a woman,'” said Klobuchar, who has won two U.S. Senate races in Minnesota. “I think we need to talk about the impact that the women who are in leadership in whatever job they do have made and make that case in a very different way.”

Klobuchar advised women to “be persistent” and seek “common ground” on political issues, but she acknowledged there is “deep discord” in the country.

“I like to remind so many of my friends, some of which are marching and some of which are in watching TV and putting the blanket over their heads (that) yes, we resist, but we also insist on a better way forward for our country,” Klobuchar said. “And that includes Democrats and Republicans.”

Klobuchar was applauded as she praised the two Republican women in the U.S. Senate who voted down the GOP’s plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Klobuchar frequently used humor to drive home a point, like her admission it was hard to raise money in her first senate race in 2006 because she was unknown nationally and her name was hard to pronounce.

“I got all my old address books and I called everyone I knew in my life and I set what is still an all-time Senate record. I raised $17,000 from ex-boyfriends,” Klobuchar said, to waves of laughter. “And as my husband has pointed out, it is not an expanding base.”

Mary Mascher, a Democrat who serves in the Iowa House, was in the crowd last night. She said Klobuchar has presidential potential.

“There’s some star quality there,” Mascher said. “I just think she resonates well with people and has such a great message.”

Barbara Atkins of Ames didn’t know much about Klobuchar before last night.

“Really hit so many different issues that are so important in our country,” Atkins said. “She was really good.”

Atkins said she hadn’t thought about it before, but now would consider Klobuchar as a presidential candidate — if Klobuchar runs. Klobuchar is up for reelection to a third term in the U.S. Senate in 2018.

She is the 30th woman to be invited to Iowa State’s lecture series honoring the late Mary Louise Smith, an Iowa Republican who was the first women to chair a national political party. Klobuchar spoke for nearly 40 minutes, then took questions from the crowd for another 20 minutes.

AUDIO of Klobuchar’s appearance in Ames, 60:00

During the question-and-answer period, one woman from the audience asked Klobuchar about equal pay and family leave policies. During an interview with Radio Iowa after the event, Klobuchar criticized the Trump Administration’s decision to halt an Obama-era rule that would have forced companies to submit pay information sorted by race, ethnicity and gender.

“To continue to support change in this country that’s fair to people, you have to collect the data,” Klobuchar told Radio Iowa.

Amy Klobuchar

More than 250 Democrats in Iowa’s largest county gathered tonight, commiserating about recent losses, but urging one another to “lean forward” to 2018 and beyond.

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar was the event’s keynote speaker. She told Radio Iowa heading in that Democrats “can’t forget the middle of the country.”

“We need people who are speaking out nationally from the middle of the country,” Klobuchar said during a brief interview. “That means from the middle of the political spectrum and everything else.”

Klobuchar spoke for about 40 minutes at the Polk County Democrats Spring Fundraiser, briefly tweaking President Trump for being more focused on “tweetership” than leadership. She described the U.S. Senate as “a place of compromise” than can provide an “emergency brake” to some of Trump’s agenda.

“I had to make a decision at the end of last year and Trump had won and I had an opportunity to run for governor and you know what I decided?” Klobuchar asked the crowd. “I decided I wasn’t going to leave my duty station because the United States Senate is the place to be.”

But Klobuchar spent most of her time laying out a “four corners…competitiveness agenda” — something she might use as the foundation for a 2020 presidential campaign.

“Let’s not think of this as a moment in time just to overcome. Right?” Klobuchar told the crowd in closing. “Let’s think of this as an opportunity, a moment to shine, to show the world what America really stands for and to show the world what we’re made of.”

Klobuchar stood to speak in front of the huge American flag that was used on Election Night 2012 in Des Moines at President Obama’s final campaign rally.

“We wanted it to be here tonight to show that we’ve had good days in the past. We have a good day today and we’re going to have good days in the future,” Polk County Democratic Party chairman Sean Bagniewski said.

Senate Democratic Leader Rob Hogg of Cedar Rapids told his fellow Democrats to quit moping around and complaining about one another on social media. Hogg urged Democrats to have a “summer of citizenship in 2017” and as his cadence escalated, Hoog seemed to be losing his voice.

“With your help, we’re going to take back the Iowa House…the Iowa Senate…the governorship,” Hogg said. “And with your help we’re going to take back congress and, with your help, in 2020 we’re going to take back the presidency before that man destroys our country, our democracy and our future.”

AUDIO of Hogg’s remarks, 15:00

AFSCME Council 61 president Danny Homan blasted Republican lawmakers at the state level for rolling back union bargaining rights and he promised political payback’s ahead.

“The pledge I am making to the Iowa Democratic Party and to every Democrat in the state: I am going to educate my members,” Homan said. “…They are going to know who the hell did this to ’em and it wasn’t Democrats.”

AUDIO of Homan’s remarks, 13:00

Klobuchar, who took the stage a few minutes later, praised other speakers and the crowd for exhibiting “incredible energy.”

“As I’ve told many of you before: ‘I can see Iowa from my porch,'” Klobuchar said, a turn on Sarah Palin’s remark that you can Russia from land in Alaska, and last night’s Des Moines crowd laughed. “It is good to be back with friends and I thought I was going to come down here to cheer you guys up, but you’ve cheered me up.”

AUDIO of Klobuchar’s speech, 41:00