Democratic presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar speaks during a Summerlin Early Vote Kick Off Rally at the Desert Vista Community Center Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020.
Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2020 | noon
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar has not had as much of a presence in Nevada as some of the other Democratic candidates for president. Though she staffed up in the state in late 2019, she’s been outspent here by her competitors.
But fresh off a strong finish Feb. 11 in the New Hampshire primary — she came in third with almost 20% of the vote and received 6 delegates — Klobuchar has aimed her revitalized operation at Nevada.
After a weekend of events throughout the valley, she sat down with the Las Vegas Sun to discuss her campaign in the Silver State.
While other campaigns have been on the ground in a big way here for a while, you’ve really increased your presence here after New Hampshire. What are some of the struggles when a campaign gets on the ground later than others?
Our biggest thing is, we’ve got to get people to know me. No amount of staff probably does that; it’s the ads. We’re finally running ads all over Nevada, including Las Vegas, so that’s going to be a big change for me. We can spend money on that because we got, the day after the debate (Feb. 7 in New Hampshire), nearly $3 million online and the day of the New Hampshire primary was similar. So we’re going to be able to do run ads and get more staff.
You want to have people volunteering, and you need staff to oversee that volunteering. Then we’re building up in all the Super Tuesday states as well. There are states all around Nevada that are Super Tuesday states, and then Arizona isn’t far away, so that helps as well. I think we’ll be spending a lot of time in the West, and not just because of the weather.
One of the issues brought up at last week’s League of United Latin American Citizens Forum in Las Vegas was your record as Hennepin County, Minnesota, attorney. (Concerns have been raised about, among other things, the lack of prosecution for police shootings during Klobuchar’s tenure.) How do you address these concerns?
We did a lot of good there. We decreased African American incarceration during the time I was there by 12%, which is pretty significant.
Part of that was focusing on white-collar cases, as well as doing a lot of work when it comes to drug court, which was a way of getting people out of the system and into treatment.
I pioneered a number of things with the Innocence Project. I actually went around the country advocating for videotape interrogation. I debated the Queens (New York) district attorney as a young prosecutor with the Innocence Project. I did a new form of witness ID that reduces racial misidentifications, and I diversified the office.
I’d say that when you’re a prosecutor, it’s a tough job. There’s always going to be questions about cases that happen. I have been very clear, in every place in the country, there is systemic racism in our criminal justice system.
The way you get at that is, first of all, sentencing reform. That’s what that first step act was. And also some of these changes I’ve mentioned, including body cameras, training and the like, taking responsibility for police shootings instead of sending them to a grand jury, which is how all the cases were handled when I was a district attorney, essentially everywhere in the country. Those are all good reforms.
In the end, when you look at my effort on criminal justice reform, it’s pretty strong. I think, actually, there’s an argument, despite all the criticisms that anyone that’s been a district attorney is going to get, that having someone with that kind of background, if you want to get criminal justice reform, is good.
Nevada is the first truly diverse state to vote in the nominating process. For minorities and others who may have concerns over your record, the fix is then just getting the messaging out?
Well, they have to get to know me better. Let’s be honest, I’m less well-known than former Vice President Joe Biden or some other candidates, so that’s part of it. The second part is letting them know the work that I’ve done that’s good, and then letting them know what I want to do in the future.
The Culinary Union has declined to endorse any candidate in the caucus cycle, but leadership has come out pretty strongly against single-payer, government-run health care like what is proposed by Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Do you think Nevada voters fall more in line with the idea of a publicly funded health care option rather than a requirement?
I think it’s really what proposal works best for this country. From the beginning, I’ve been one of the ones that has stood out as saying I didn’t get on the Medicare for All bill.
For a while, everyone who was in the race and the Senate had gotten on that bill except for me and Sen. Michael Bennett, D-Colo. There was a lot of pressure to get on that bill, and I read it and I thought, “Well, kicking 149 million Americans off their current health insurance, including union members, in four years does not sound like a very smart idea.”
That’s why I think this public option is a lot better. The Culinary Union and their workers have worked really hard to get their own health care plan, and no matter what these guys say, that will take it away from them. They’ve very concerned about that.
What would you like to tell Nevada voters that may not be familiar with you?
That I’ll have people’s back. That I’m someone who has led on issues that are near and dear to the hearts of people in Nevada, like renewable energy and prescription drugs and long-term care and, of course, tourism and immigration reform.
I’ve actually led on these issues, and it fits Nevada pretty well.
