The First Campaign Stop

Today was Senator Amy Klobuchar’s first scheduled presidential campaign stop in South Carolina, and it was also the Full Grassley’s first time attending a campaign event in 2019. While we’ve already spoken with a couple of the candidates for president for the podcast, we haven’t attended a campaign event yet — so we drove to Greenville to see Minnesota’s senior senator in action.

After the obligatory speeches, including one by Belge, Klobuchar had arrived.

Klobuchar was introduced by Jarrod Wiggins, who was a great validator. He volunteered for Klobuchar’s first Senate campaign in 2006 while in high school, then moved to South Carolina — so he has cred as both an Amy acolyte and a local. He gave a passionate speech about how he connected with Senator Klobuchar and how she fought for him: first when she fought for Pell Grants, then when she fought against Amendment One, the anti-LGBTQ amendment that Minnesota rejected in 2012. After the speech, Wiggins helped take pictures for the picture line — once a staffer, always a staffer. I can relate.

As a native midwesterner born in one of those counties along the Mississippi, I get it. It probably plays great in the 1st and 2nd Congressional Districts in Iowa, and it ties into her platform planks on infrastructure and bipartisanship. I don’t know if it has the same impact in South Carolina, but the speech was still well-received.

That’s one of the reasons I wanted to see Klobuchar in South Carolina and not Iowa. Minnesota shares a couple of media markets with Iowa, and the states have a lot in common. Candidates often feel like fish-out-of-water in Iowa, Klobuchar does not. South Carolina is a much better test of her national appeal, with a Democratic electorate that better reflects the entire country.

The folks who came out to hear from the senator were focused on her message. The audience was savvy enough for references to Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, and Marco Rubio as well, though that may not be the case in a more retail, less activist-y setting. One educator I talked to after the event, Sherita Goldsmith, thought “the speech was great; she addressed some of my concerns as far as college as well as an increase in pay for teachers.”

Later, she packed a house in Columbia — not just any house, but the house of former South Carolina Democratic Party chair Carol Fowler, and former DNC chair Don Fowler. Over 150 people came to see Klobuchar. When asked what he thought South Carolina Democrats were looking for, Don Fowler said, crisply, “a win.” He said America needs a “deliverance” from Donald Trump, and said of Klobuchar, “this lady here can certainly do it.”

Mr. Fowler is what’s called a “distinguished party leader,” the superest of the superdelegates. Joe Biden, Jimmy Carter, and Barack Obama are in this category; like them, Don is a superdelegate for life. Along with Congressman Clyburn’s fish fry, the Fowlers’ home is quickly becoming one of the most important stops in Columbia; Senator Kirsten Gillibrand was there earlier this month.

I also talked to Kate Hoffman, a USC honors student who is attending medical school this fall. She told me she “was really happy to hear her ideas to allow the federal government to negotiate prices for Medicaid and Medicare programs” and wanted to hear more about Klobuchar’s plans to lower costs and expand coverage. She’s definitely voting in the primary next year, and she wants to hear candidates talk about climate change and restoring the rule of law and our Democratic norms.

Klobuchar talked a lot about grit during her speech, which may be political aikido in response to her staffing stories, or may have been the plan all along. She didn’t grow up with a lot of money, but she fought hard to get ahead. She’s a Democrat, but she’s not afraid to go where it’s uncomfortable (read: places with Republicans).

Like many others have noted, it’s a compelling general election narrative. We’ll have to wait and see how it plays in a primary that is trending to the left, but has an increasingly crowded left lane.

One thing’s for sure: primary season is in full swing, and voters across South Carolina, Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada will see hundreds more events like today’s before the first Iowans vote on January 29th. It takes a lot of grit to maintain that kind of schedule; Amy Klobuchar is up to the challenge.

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