Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar made a quick visit to Maine on a Saturday tour of four states voting in the Democratic presidential election on Tuesday, touting her ability to win red districts as she looks to salvage a longshot candidacy.
Klobuchar is one of the more moderate candidates in the Democratic field of eight, serving as a foil to front-running Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and others by rejecting some progressive litmus tests including Medicare for All while pitching herself as the best candidate to defeat President Donald Trump by citing electoral wins in conservative-leaning counties.
She looked past South Carolina — won on Saturday by former Vice President Joe Biden — to focus on states that are among the 14 voting on Super Tuesday. Klobuchar’s campaign has failed to gain momentum after a surprising third-place finish in New Hampshire. She is polling in single digits the largest states voting Tuesday except her home state.
Klobuchar’s stop at the Ramada Plaza in outer Portland was the third stop on a Saturday swing beginning in Tennessee and Virginia set to end in North Carolina in the evening. She hit Trump for “broken promises” on the economy and Democratic rivals by saying she has “shown how I’m going to pay for every single thing.”
“Every time I’ve run, I’ve flipped the State House from Republican to Democrat,” Klobuchar said. “Every time I’ve run, I have won in the reddest of red districts. I have won in the rural congressional districts by huge margins.”
Maine isn’t expected to be a strong state for Klobuchar, who received 4 percent of votes here in a Colby College poll released in mid-February. Sanders, who easily won the 2016 presidential caucuses here, was the leader with four other candidates close to a 15 percent threshold that candidates must reach to win any delegates on Tuesday.
Her campaign is still prioritizing Maine on the final weekend of the race. Klobuchar’s husband, attorney John Bessler, will hold a meet-and-greet at the University of Maine in Orono on Sunday followed by afternoon and evening house parties in Owls Head and Portland. Klobuchar was endorsed by the Bangor Daily News’ editorial board on Thursday.
Sanders and former Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, visited Maine in the summer while former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg came in January after launching his massive self-funded campaign. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, whose candidacy is also in jeopardy as she polls behind Sanders in her home state, was the first to organize here.
Klobuchar’s visit to Maine is likely to be the last by a candidate before the state votes on Tuesday. It has the second-smallest population of any state voting then, with only 24 pledged delegates up for grabs on Election Day. California, by contrast, holds 415.
This article appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.