1. Amy Jean Klobuchar is an American politician and lawyer serving as the senior United States senator from Minnesota, a seat she has held since 2007.
61 Facts About Amy Klobuchar
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Amy Klobuchar was a partner at two Minneapolis law firms before being elected county attorney of Hennepin County in 1998, making her responsible for all criminal prosecution in Minnesota's most populous county.
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Amy Klobuchar was first elected to the Senate in 2006, succeeding Mark Dayton to become Minnesota's first elected female United States senator.
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Amy Klobuchar was reelected by a landslide in 2012, winning 85 of the state's 87 counties, before being reelected again in 2018.
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Amy Klobuchar has focused on healthcare reform, consumer protection, abortion rights, agriculture, and climate change.
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Amy Klobuchar is known for her folksy, Midwestern demeanor and ability to win in rural Minnesota.
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On February 10,2019, Amy Klobuchar announced her candidacy for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States in the 2020 election; on March 2,2020, she suspended her campaign and endorsed Joe Biden.
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Amy Klobuchar was reelected to a fourth Senate term in 2024, defeating Republican nominee Royce White.
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Amy Klobuchar's mother taught second grade until she retired at age 70.
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Amy Klobuchar attended public schools in Plymouth and was valedictorian at Wayzata High School, where she was class treasurer and secretary.
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Amy Klobuchar's first foray into politics came after she gave birth and was forced to leave the hospital 24 hours later, a situation exacerbated by the fact that Klobuchar's daughter, Abigail, was born with a disorder that prevented her from swallowing.
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The experience led Amy Klobuchar to appear before the Minnesota State Legislature, advocating for a bill that would guarantee new mothers a 48-hour hospital stay.
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Amy Klobuchar was first a candidate for public office in 1994 when she ran for Hennepin County attorney.
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The county attorney election is nonpartisan, but Freeman, like Amy Klobuchar, is a Democrat.
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Amy Klobuchar was elected Hennepin County attorney in 1998, running after Freeman declined to seek an additional term.
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Amy Klobuchar was president of the Minnesota County Attorneys Association from November 2002 to November 2003.
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In 2002, Amy Klobuchar spearheaded an effort that resulted in state laws being altered to allow felony charges to be brought against repeat drunk driving offenders.
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Amy Klobuchar had won election on the slogan "More Trials, More Convictions".
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Amy Klobuchar pursued heavier sentencing and less favorable plea deals, and sought to bring more cases to trial.
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Amy Klobuchar brought felony charges against a number of men for failure to pay child support.
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Amy Klobuchar declared that she intended to scrutinize judges who were "letting offenders off the hook too easily".
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In 2000, a successful appeal by Amy Klobuchar lengthened by two days a sentence that a judge gave an immigrant defendant, which placed the defendant at a greatly increased risk of deportation.
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Amy Klobuchar successfully prosecuted teenage defendant Myon Burrell for the 2002 murder of 11-year-old Tyesha Edwards by gunshot.
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For much of her subsequent career, Amy Klobuchar highlighted this case, framing it both as an example of her toughness on crime as well as an example of her fighting to provide justice for African-American communities affected by gun crime.
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In 2004, Amy Klobuchar supported the presidential campaign of US senator John Kerry, traveling across Minnesota as a campaign surrogate.
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Amy Klobuchar did not prosecute any cases related to police brutality.
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Some deaths resulted in public controversy, but Amy Klobuchar did not bring any charges.
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Amy Klobuchar was retrospectively criticized for not prosecuting police misconduct during her tenure.
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The killing occurred in October 2006, several months before Amy Klobuchar left office, and a grand jury was empaneled by her successor.
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In early 2005, after US senator Mark Dayton announced that he would not seek reelection in 2006, Amy Klobuchar became an early favorite for the DFL nomination.
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Amy Klobuchar had originally planned to run for attorney general of Minnesota, but was persuaded to run for Senate.
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Emily's List endorsed her on September 29,2005, and Amy Klobuchar won the DFL endorsement on June 9,2006.
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Amy Klobuchar gained the support of the majority of DFL state legislators in Minnesota during the primaries.
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Amy Klobuchar is the first woman to be elected US senator from Minnesota.
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Amy Klobuchar won a second term in the US Senate, defeating Republican state representative Kurt Bills by a margin of 35 percentage points, carrying all but two counties.
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Amy Klobuchar ran for a third term and was reelected by a 24-point margin.
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Amy Klobuchar maintained a double-digit lead in the polls all autumn.
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In February 2019, BuzzFeed News reported that interviews with former staffers and reviews of emails indicated that Amy Klobuchar frequently abused and humiliated her employees, requiring significant staff time to manage her ire.
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Amy Klobuchar was at the US Capitol when Trump supporters stormed it on January 6,2021.
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Amy Klobuchar served as a teller, along with Blunt, Representative Rodney Davis, and Representative Zoe Lofgren.
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Amy Klobuchar was the first speaker at Joe Biden's inauguration on January 20,2021.
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On March 30,2008, Amy Klobuchar announced her endorsement of Senator Barack Obama in the Democratic presidential primary, promising her superdelegate vote to him.
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Amy Klobuchar has served as the chair of the US Senate Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee since 2015.
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Amy Klobuchar became the steering chair of the committee in 2017, with Bernie Sanders as the outreach chair.
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In 2020, Amy Klobuchar was speculated to be a possible candidate for secretary of agriculture or United States attorney general in the Biden administration.
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On February 10,2019, Amy Klobuchar announced her candidacy in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries.
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Amy Klobuchar has said that she uses humor as one way to distinguish herself among the many other Democratic candidates in the 2020 campaign.
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On March 2,2020, the day before Super Tuesday, Amy Klobuchar suspended her campaign and endorsed Joe Biden.
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On May 21,2020, it was reported that Biden asked several women, including Amy Klobuchar, to undergo formal vetting for consideration as his vice-presidential running mate.
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Amy Klobuchar is pro-choice on abortion, supports LGBT rights and the Affordable Care Act, and was critical of the Iraq War.
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In 1993, Amy Klobuchar married John Bessler, a private practice attorney and a professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law.
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Amy Klobuchar is a member of the United Church of Christ and is a cousin of musician Zola Jesus.
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In September 2021, Amy Klobuchar revealed that she had been diagnosed with Stage 1A breast cancer in February 2021, that she had undergone a successful lumpectomy, and that in May she had completed a course of radiation treatment.
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In July 2024, Amy Klobuchar announced that she was still cancer-free after she underwent a small surgery and brief radiation treatment.
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Amy Klobuchar's paternal grandfather was a miner on Minnesota's Iron Range.
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Amy Klobuchar has received a number of awards during her career.
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In 2012, Amy Klobuchar received the Sheldon Coleman Great Outdoors Award at a special Great Outdoors Week celebration presented by the American Recreation Coalition.
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Amy Klobuchar was one of the recipients of the Agricultural Retailers Association's 2012 Legislator of the Year Award, alongside Republican representative John Mica.
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Amy Klobuchar received the American Bar Association's Congressional Justice Award in 2015 for her efforts to protect vulnerable populations from violence, exploitation, and assault and to eliminate discrimination in the workplace.
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In 2021, Amy Klobuchar received the Award for Distinguished Public Service from the Association of American Publishers.
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In 2024, Amy Klobuchar received the Distinguished Public Service Award from The American Legion.