Amy Klobuchar surges to third in New Hampshire polls as she warns against 'socialist' Sanders

Moderate candidate has the momentum ahead of Tuesday's primary

US Presidential Candidate Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) speaks to Rotary Club members at the Nashua Country Club (AFP via Getty Images)

Amy Klobuchar really wants New Hampshire to know that she is not a socialist, and she doesn't think it is a particularly good idea to nominate one as the Democratic nominee, either.

Just hours before voters in the Granite State were set to start casting ballots in the first in the nation primary, Ms Klobuchar emphasised that point as she mounts what could be her last real chance at turning her long-shot presidential candidacy into a winning prospect.

"We've had a lot of debates, as you know," Ms Klobuchar told a weekly Rotary Club meeting at a country club in Nashua on Monday, as attendees munched on cured meats and chicken cacciatore. "And ... I don't agree with everything people say on the debate stage."

She continued: "In fact, when we were asked during the last debate if we thought a socialist should lead the ticket, I was the only one who raised my hand and said, 'No, I don't think so.'"

It is a stance she has made clear in various ways for months now to largely deaf ears in the media. She is friends with the target of that question, self-described democratic socialist Bernie Sanders, but she is far from convinced about his vision for the future.

At just the last moment, though - just as Joe Biden's candidacy has appeared to fade and as moderate voters have grappled with the increasingly real prospect that they might nominate Pete Buttigieg, a 38-year-old candidate with zero state-wide or national experience - her prospects appear ascendant.

On Monday, New Hampshire woke up to good news for the Minnesota senator, who has emphasised her focus on policies she believes would help small business across the country. After months of relative obscurity and middling polls, two polls showed her overtaking Elizabeth Warren to occupy third place in the race behind Mr Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders.

In one, Ms Klobuchar came in third with 14 per cent support, to second-place Mr Buttigieg's 19 per cent. Mr Sanders, who is a senator from nearby Vermont, appears poised for a blowout in the state, with 27 per cent support in that poll.

For Stepanie Wolf-Rosenblum, a 64-year-old physician who stopped by the Nashua event to hear Ms Klobuchar speak, the Minnesota senator is exactly why she would prescribe for the White House.

Mr Buttigieg has a bright future ahead of him, she said, but she thinks that the damage Mr Trump has done in the past three years necessitates a leader with experience in the Oval Office.

"We need somebody with experience. A range of experience," she said. "And we need someone with established relationships."

She continued: "She relates to people and their struggles, and their pain in a way that I don't think other candidates have."

Devra Cohen, a 63-year-old child care doctor, also praised Ms Klobuchar, but said that her decision to support the senator on Tuesday had nothing to do with Mr Biden's plummeting chances.

"I made my mind a few weeks ago," she said. And, she thinks Ms Klobuchar could restore dignity to the White House that has been sacrificed during Mr Trump's presidency: "I think she's a woman who has a moral core. We need somebody who has that."