Amy Klobuchar rejects suggestion America not ready to elect a woman president

Minnesota senator has risen to ‘solid’ fifth in Iowa polls

In a wooden house surrounded by trees at the end of long and twisting track, Amy Klobuchar was making the case for why she she should be America’s next president.

She cited her Midwestern roots, the centrist policies that did not scare off moderate voters, and her readiness to work with allies, rather than antagonise them. She also stamped a heeled winter boot on the suggestion Americans would not vote for a woman.

“A lot of men have voted for women,” she said, asked by one man about a poll suggesting only 50 per cent of men would feel comfortable voting for a female commander-in-chief. “[A lot of polls’ results] depend on the way questions are asked. I think we have to confront that in our head.”

She added: “And as I have said before, Nancy Pelosi beats Trump every single day.”

The question of whether a woman can make it to the White House may seem outdated given six women were among the 25 candidates seeking the party’s 2020 nomination – five are still contesting – and that Hillary Clinton bettered Donald Trump by three million votes in 2016.

But the blunt fact remains, none of the 44 individuals who have occupied the Oval Office have been women, a dispiriting state of affairs Ms Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Tulsi Gabbard and Marianne Williamson are trying to change. A sixth woman candidate, New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand, suspended her campaign in August.

Earlier this month, Ms Klobuchar, 59, who in 2006 became the first woman elected to represent Minnesota in the Senate, triggered controversy when she suggested that if a woman candidate had as little experience as South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg, they would not have made it to the stage of the party’s fifth debate.

During the debate, which was held in Atlanta, she conceded Mr Buttigieg was qualified, but insisted: “Women are held to a higher standard. Otherwise, we could play a game called name your favourite woman president, which we can’t do, because it has all been men.”

Confronting snow is just one of challenges for candidates campaigning in Iowa (Andrew Buncombe)

Casual followers of politics may have been surprised to see the senator present in the fifth campaign, having assumed she had dropped out after failing to break through low single digits in any major polls, and trailing far behind the likes of Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Ms Warren and Mr Buttigieg.

Yet, Ms Klobuchar’s campaign appears to be having a second wind. Polls suggest that after a reasonably strong performance in the debate, and as Ms Warren’s numbers have fallen, apparently amid concern about her healthcare plan, the Minnesota senator is now in a “solid” fifth place in Iowa. RealClearPolitics, which collates various polls, suggests her position nationally is eighth.

“I know it sounds funny, and it’s only in the Midwest that people cheer [about being fifth],” she told around 20 potential voters gathered in the tiny Iowa community of St Ansgar, on the morning before Thanksgiving.

“But when you think how well known some of the candidates are, and the money, we’re feeling better and better every day.”

The scene, in a village named for a ninth century saint known for taking Christianity to Scandinavia, was quintessential campaigning in Iowa; speaking to small numbers of people in halls, or private homes, often on a freezing day, and needing to respond convincingly when quizzed on any topic under the sun.

“Amy is more real. Warren charges up everyone in the room, but she’s going to struggle to get those proposals through,” said 74-year-old Judy Gergen, who was among those present. “Amy’s realistic about getting things done.”

Ms Klobuchar said her campaign had received the most endorsements from Iowan officials, was hiring more staff and opening more offices in the state, which is the first to vote and plays an outsized role in the way America selects its presidential candidates, long after the likes of Beto O’Rourke called it a day.

The New York Times pointed out she is one of just six candidates to have qualified for the party’s sixth debate, while the $3.7m she had on hand at the end of the third quarter put her eighth in the pack. At the same time, her home state of Minnesota, which Ms Clinton only narrowly won in 2016, is on the very top of Republicans’ targets to flip in 2020.

In an interview, Ms Klobuchar told The Independent that among her priorities as president would be repairing the US’s international reputation.

“We have a trust crisis right now in our institutions, and in our government,” she said. “One of the first things I would do as president is visit our allies, in the first 100 days, including Great Britain, because I think that has to be a big part of showing we stand with our allies and not with tyrants.”

She also said her ability to win in the middle of the country – she claims to be one of just two of the two-dozen candidates that hail from here – would put her in good stead in the general election, once the party has picked a candidate.

She said of her bump in the polls: “I think a lot of that is the debates, where I had an opportunity to show I was different to several of our candidates.

“I’m from the middle of the country, which Donald Trump always brags about having won. But if you put me at the top of the ticket that will be a different story, because I can win in the heartland.”

She added: “And I’ve been able to make the case we need to bring people with us, rather than shutting them out. So we have a strong consensus, so when we win this election – and I plan to win in a big way – we can get things done.”