10 things to know about Minnesota’s next Governor Amy Klobuchar
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The 66-year-old defeated Republican nominee Lisa Demuth on Tuesday. She will succeed DFL Gov. Tim Walz, who did not seek reelection this year. Democrats have held the statewide seat since 2011.
If you’re new to Minnesota politics, here’s what to know about the governor-elect.
1) Klobuchar is a former attorney
Klobuchar started her professional career working as a corporate attorney for over a decade.
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She led the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office for eight years, from 1999 to 2007, before she was sworn into the U.S. Senate. She has held her congressional seat since 2007.
With her win, Klobuchar must resign from the U.S. Senate. Minnesota law calls for the governor to appoint a temporary replacement until a special election can be held. It was not immediately clear whether Walz or Klobuchar will appoint her replacement — it depends on when Klobuchar resigns.
2) Klobuchar has broken other barriers during her political career
Klobuchar was the first woman to serve as Hennepin County attorney and the first woman to represent Minnesota in the U.S. Senate.
3) Klobuchar grew up in the Twin Cities
Klobuchar spent her early childhood in Plymouth. She’s the daughter of the late Jim Klobuchar, a longtime Star Tribune journalist and columnist, and Rose Klobuchar, who worked as a second-grade teacher in Minneapolis and Wayzata.
She is a graduate of Wayzata High School, Yale University and the University of Chicago Law School.
She currently lives in Minneapolis with her husband John Bessler. They have one adult child, Abigail.
4) The birth of her daughter inspired Klobuchar’s journey to public office
Klobuchar’s daughter had health issues at birth in 1995. However, health insurance at the time limited new mothers to a 24-hour stay in the hospital, so she was separated from her newborn, who remained hospitalized.
As a result, she helped advocate for a new law guaranteeing new mothers and their babies a 48-hour hospital stay in Minnesota. She had previously worked on campaigns but has said this personal experience made her interested in running for office.
5) Klobuchar campaigned on ‘results, not excuses’
Her campaign priorities included:
Lowering health care, housing and childcare costs
Tackling fraud in state government
Expanding education opportunities as an on-ramp for the workforce
Increasing support for public safety
Investing in agriculture and rural Minnesota
Preserving natural resources and protecting the environment
6) As senator, Klobuchar has highlighted her bipartisan track record
She has touted her accomplishments in working across the aisle in Congress, including securing funding to rebuild after the I-35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis, leading antitrust tech legislation that set up new guardrails for digital markets and rewriting maritime rules to bring down supply costs.
7) Klobuchar was among top Democratic picks for president in 2020
Klobuchar rose to national attention when she sought the Democratic Party endorsement for president in 2019. She outlasted better-known and better-funded candidates, yet ultimately ended her presidential bid and endorsed Joe Biden.
8) The late, former Vice President Walter Mondale was a key mentor
Klobuchar interned for Mondale during the Carter-Mondale administration in the 1970s. That turned into a decades-long connection until his death in 2021.
9) Klobuchar wanted to be a librarian when she was a kid
She told MPR News that she loves to read and when she was a child, she would categorize every book she read with the Dewey Decimal number.
10 Klobuchar is kinda funny
Her brand of humor has come up in several articles over the years, from Politico, MinnPost, NPR and the New York Times.
Klobuchar “brought the house down” when she hosted the Washington Press Club Foundation dinner in 2009, according to Politico. There, she joked about raising $17,000 from ex-boyfriends.
“Wry, wholesome, self-deprecating, sometimes hokey funny, but funny,” was how a New York Times reporter described Klobuchar in a 2019 article.
At a confirmation hearing for then-Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, Klobuchar asked Kagan “Edward versus Jacob” referring to the Twilight series to lighten the mood. Kagan responded, “I wish you wouldn’t,” laughing.
Political correspondent Dana Ferguson contributed to this report.
