WASHINGTON – Sen. Amy Klobuchar cemented her place in the top tier of Democratic presidential candidates on Tuesday, finishing in the top three in the New Hampshire primary, according to NBC News.
Klobuchar, who represents Minnesota, trailed only Sen. Bernie Sanders, the projected winner on Tuesday, and former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, the projected second place finisher. She was also poised to win multiple delegates, while one-time front-runners former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren were set to be shut out, NBC News projected.
In a state where residents pride themselves on their self-reliance and pragmatism, the Minnesota Democrat's moderate, no-nonsense message resonated with a wide swath of voters in Tuesday's contest, the first popular ballot of the 2020 presidential calendar.
Speaking to supporters Tuesday night, Klobuchar took aim at President Donald Trump in plain language, one of her political hallmarks. "He blames everyone. For anything that goes wrong. He blames Barack Obama. He blames the city of Baltimore. He blames the head of the Federal Reserve that he appointed. He blames the Energy Secretary that he nominated. He blames the entire kingdom of Denmark!" she said, to laughs and cheers.
"I will take responsibility instead of passing it on," Klobuchar said. "I will reach across the aisle and work with all Americans in good faith, instead of picking fights. I will bring this country together instead of tearing it apart."
Klobuchar is vying for the middle lane with Buttigieg, another moderate who also campaigns on a message of pragmatism and reaching across the aisle to work with Republicans.
"If you want a Democratic nominee who can make our tent bigger, who can make our coalition wider, and make our coattails longer, I know you, and I will fight for you," Klobuchar said Tuesday night.
Yet by effectively splitting the vote of moderate Democrats, Klobuchar and Buttigieg cleared the path for Sanders, an ardent progressive, to come away with the biggest single slice of delegates out of New Hampshire.
After finishing in fifth place in the Iowa caucuses earlier this month, Klobuchar's finish Tuesday also places her directly in the path of the two candidates who did better than she did in Iowa, only to finish behind her in New Hampshire: Warren and Biden.
Neither Biden nor Warren were on pace to finish Tuesday with enough votes to secure any delegates. It was a surprisingly poor finish for Warren. But for Biden, it was a five alarm fire.
Klobuchar's Tuesday finish followed her strongest debate performance so far in the campaign, last Friday in New Hampshire. There, Klobuchar landed rhetorical blows on Buttigieg over comments he made about how Americans wanted to "switch off" the Trump impeachment hearings and "watch cartoons."
"Pete, as you were campaigning through Iowa, as three of us were jurors in that impeachment hearing, you said it was exhausting to watch and that you wanted to turn the channel and watch cartoons. It is easy to go after Washington because that's a popular thing to do," Klobuchar said. "It is much harder to lead and much harder to take those difficult positions."
As the Democratic primary moves to Nevada next for a caucus Feb. 22, Sanders is again expected to finish in the top spot, with Real Clear Politics' polling average for the state showing Klobuchar in seventh place, behind even entrepreneur Andrew Yang and billionaire Tom Steyer. Yang dropped out of the race Tuesday night.
For Klobuchar, the next real test of her campaign's viability will be Super Tuesday, March 3, when voters in 14 states cast ballots in the Democratic presidential primary. Currently, the Minnesota senator lacks the extensive ground operations in these states that many of her competitors have built. Nor does she have the money to blanket the airwaves in dozens of media markets.
All is not lost for Klobuchar, however. In the weeks leading up to Super Tuesday, Democrats plan to hold two televised debates, and as a candidate, Klobuchar has proven particularly competitive on the debate stage.
A standout performance in one or both of these debates could fuel Klobuchar's campaign well beyond the traditional Super Tuesday firewall. Â