The New York Times - 12.09.2019

A22 N THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONALTHURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

WASHINGTON — Senator

Amy Klobuchar keeps having to

tell Democratic voters the things

they can’t have: Medicare for all,

free college, mandatory gun con-

fiscation and decriminalizing all

border crossings.

In the first two Democratic de-

bates, Ms. Klobuchar, a Minne-

sota moderate, refused both to

embrace the party’s more liberal

ideas or to draw an explicit con-

trast with Senators Elizabeth

Warren and Bernie Sanders. In-

stead, she served as something of

a palate cleanser between others

onstage vying for the viral mo-

ment denied to her so far.

“I had to give the mom answer,”

Ms. Klobuchar said Tuesday.

It’s a strategy betting on the

long-term patience of Democratic

primary voters she hopes will

eventually pick a candidate sell-

ing herself as uniquely able to win

back Midwestern voters who fled

to President Trump in 2016 — if

only she can attract their atten-

tion.

“I hope that these moderators

will ask one of the other candi-

dates, bring up one of my ideas

and say, ‘Why isn’t this a good

idea?’ That would be a nice fram-

ing,” Ms. Klobuchar said. “A lot of

questions have been 30-second re-

sponses to other people’s ideas.”

Ms. Klobuchar, who qualified

for the September and October

debates, has for months been en-

sconced near the bottom of the

what she once called “the A

group” of candidates. She gar-

nered 2 percent in just one of the

last nine polls used to qualify for

the party’s debates, leaving her in

danger of missing the ones in No-

vember and December, when the

Democratic National Committee

is expected to raise the qualifying

poll and donor thresholds.

Through two debates and seven

months of campaigning, the traits

that served Ms. Klobuchar in win-

ning three Senate elections in

Minnesota have limited her ap-

peal in the Democratic presiden-

tial campaign. Back home, she has

pursued a relatively safe electoral

strategy, aiming to appeal to mod-

erate Republicans while enjoying

the unquestioned support of the

liberal Democratic base without

catering to her party’s left wing.

Before June, she hadn’t partici-

pated in a primary debate since

her first Senate campaign in 2006.

Since then she has built a political

brand heavy on getting along —

with both her fellow Democrats

and moderate Republicans. An in-

tramural squabble just isn’t her

style.

“I don’t think Amy wants a fight

with Democrats,” former Vice

President Walter Mondale, Ms.

Klobuchar’s highest-profile sup-

porter, said in an interview Tues-

day. “I don’t think that does us any

good.”

Heading into Thursday night’s

debate in Houston, some of Ms.

Klobuchar’s key supporters are

concerned that she hasn’t made a

lasting mark in her first two de-

bate performances.

“They served her up to go after

the other people running and she

declined to go there, she went

against Donald Trump,” said

Andy McGuire, a former Iowa

Democratic Party chairwoman,

who has endorsed Ms. Klobuchar.

“She’s not a mean person, which

sometimes in debates you have to

be.”

The first two debates left Ms.

Klobuchar fading into the wallpa-

per, when she has been noticed at

all. She has been in the middle of

the pack in speaking time — fifth

of 10 candidates in the first debate,

sixth of 10 in the second — and is

frustrated about the amount of at-

tention paid to her by the modera-

tors from NBC and CNN.

Twice during the CNN debate in

July she tried interjecting herself

into a conversation taking place

among other candidates. Both

times CNN’s moderators cut her

off. Ms. Klobuchar, off-camera,

turned to her husband and daugh-

ter in the audience and shrugged

to indicate she was having trouble

getting a word in, according to a

person who sat near them.

She has resisted attacking fel-

low Democrats in favor of draw-

ing a contrast with Mr. Trump,

leaving her on the sidelines of the

party’s high-profile food fights.

Instead, she has presented her-

self as a pragmatic progressive.

During the first debate Ms.

Klobuchar bragged about getting

34 of her bills signed by President

Trump.

“O.K., that’s a first up here,” she

quipped, to no applause.

Bruce Heyman, a former

United States ambassador to Can-

ada who hosted a fund-raiser for

Ms. Klobuchar in Chicago, said

her strategy hadn’t resulted in a

clear definition between her and

the other Democrats.

“I don’t think the message dur-

ing the debates was as clear about

who she is and how she would best

lead the country as she has the

ability to articulate,” Mr. Heyman

said.

During the first two debates Ms.

Klobuchar has indeed been ham-

strung in part by questions that fo-

cused on her opposition to other

candidates’ plans. During the first

debate, five of the eight questions

posed to her were asking why she

doesn’t prefer the more-liberal

proposals offered by others in the

race.

Asked why “an incremental ap-

proach” on health care is better

than a single-payer approach that

would abolish private health in-

surance, Ms. Klobuchar sought to

reframe the question around her

proposal to add a public option to

the Affordable Care Act. Lester

Holt, one of NBC’s moderators

during the June debates, then

went to Ms. Warren, who threw a

dagger at Ms. Klobuchar.

“I understand there are a lot of

politicians who say, ‘Oh, it’s just

not possible, we just can’t do it’,”

Ms. Warren said. “What they’re

really telling you is they just won’t

fight for it.”

In the first question posed to

her during the second debate,

Jake Tapper of CNN asked if it was

true, as Ms. Warren said, that Ms.

Klobuchar lacked the will to fight

for universal health care.

Ms. Klobuchar did not fire back

at Ms. Warren.

“I just have a better way to do

this,” she said.

Mr. Sanders and Ms. Warren

went next, and each got loud ova-

tions for launching broadsides

against the health insurance in-

dustry.

On the campaign trail in recent

weeks Ms. Klobuchar work-

shopped lines articulating the dif-

ferences between her and the

three Democratic front-runners.

At a Labor Day picnic in Iowa,

Ms. Klobuchar said she, unlike

former Vice President Joseph R.

Biden Jr., was a Midwesterner

who has been elected in the

Trump era. She won a third term

last year, defeating her Republi-

can opponent by 24 percentage

points.

“I live in the Midwest. I’m from

the Midwest, and I have a track

record of actually winning in the

areas where Donald Trump won,

not years ago, just recently,” she

said. “I think that’s very impor-

tant.”

Then on Saturday she told New

Hampshire Democrats gathered

for their state party convention

that her record carrying conser-

vative parts of Minnesota por-

tends how she would do in a gen-

eral election against Mr. Trump.

“We need a candidate for presi-

dent who understands that what

unites us as a country is greater

than what divides us, that has a

track record of winning Demo-

crats and independents and mod-

erate Republicans in every place,

in every race, every time,” she

said.

On Tuesday Ms. Klobuchar dis-

missed concerns from some of her

supporters that she hasn’t been

aggressive enough. She said she

would keep identifying herself as

a unifier instead of leaning into

contrasts with her opponents and

said she didn’t have a plan to inject

herself into discussions when she

isn’t called upon by the modera-

tors.

“I’m going to be who I am,” she

said. “Sometimes when you’re a

woman and you don’t get called on

for a while, people assume it’s be-

cause you’re not being aggressive

enough.”

Amy Klobuchar has built a political brand heavy on getting along

with both her fellow Democrats and moderate Republicans.

GRETCHEN ERTL/REUTERS

Klobuchar Wants to Talk

Policy, Specifically Hers

By REID J. EPSTEIN

A moderate finds she’s

being asked more and

more to weigh in on

opponents’ ideas.

The good news for Senator Ka-
mala Harris of California is that all
the political ingredients are there.
Her campaign launch in Oakland
remains the largest rally of any
Democratic candidate this year,
her Senate committee videos go
viral and she ignited the most
talked-about debate moment to
this point, when she confronted
the front-runner, Joseph R. Biden
Jr., regarding his Senate record on
school integration.
The downside: Even with those
head-turning moments, she is cur-
rently polling closer to the bottom
rung of Democratic candidates
than she is to the top tier in na-
tional surveys.
Ms. Harris’s summer dip places
additional pressure on her per-
formance at the third Democratic
debate in Houston, as surrogates,
donors and even some supporters
are looking for her to recapture
the magic that initially won them
over.
Many of her campaign advisers
contend there is no cause for panic
at the moment, pointing to the cal-
endar — and the four-and-a-half
months between Thursday and
the Iowa caucuses. Others push
back on the idea that the primary
has become a three person race
between Mr. Biden, Senator Eliza-
beth Warren of Massachusetts
and Senator Bernie Sanders of
Vermont.
Jess Morales Rocketto, the po-
litical director for the National Do-
mestic Workers Alliance who
worked on Hillary Clinton’s 2016
campaign, said that, in her view,
Ms. Harris represents what the
party really wants to be and the
debate is a crucial moment for the
senator to make that clear.
“Voters and operatives, they
want to make her their candidate,”
she said. “They haven’t yet be-
cause she needs to show some
more work to make that happen.”
Representative Marcia Fudge,
an Ohio Democrat who has en-
dorsed Ms. Harris, said she feels
confident about her current posi-
tion. Ms. Fudge expects the Cali-
fornia senator to go on the attack
in this debate because “the timing
is right,” she said.
“This debate matters in particu-
lar because people don’t start pay-
ing attention until after Labor
Day,” Ms. Fudge said. “Now every
day people are starting to pay at-
tention, so this is an important
one.”
In the last week, both the prom-

ise and pitfalls of Ms. Harris’s

campaign were on display, a mi-

crocosm of a campaign that has

been defined by both high points

and inconsistency. On Monday,

she issued a sweeping criminal

justice plan, which won her plau-

dits from progressive activists

who had been critical of her re-

form record in California. But the

release was somewhat muddled,

as Ms. Harris had to spend the

weekend apologizing for a video

from an event where she seemed

to laugh with an audience mem-

ber who referred to the president

using a mental health slur.

For some, Ms. Harris’s up-and-

down summer is simply a byprod-

uct of her own success, after an

impressive debut and early fund-

raising numbers created artifi-

cially high expectations she was

never going to immediately meet.

However, despite Ms. Harris be-

ing in the Senate since 2017, her

advisers point out that she came

into the race without a firm na-

tional presence and is the highest-

polling Democrat from that posi-

tion.

“People want to know what

makes you tick,” Ms. Fudge said,

relaying what she has personally

told Ms. Harris. “They want to

know what your values are, where

you come from. That’s the huge is-

sue.”

Ian Sams, Ms. Harris’s spokes-

man, said in a statement that

Democrats should expect Ms.

Harris to “take on Donald Trump

directly” in the debate, and “make

the connection between his hatred

and division and our inability to

get things done for the country.”

In private discussions and in

donor calls, Ms. Harris’s team has

acknowledged the need to better

define her policy message and

separate herself from her Demo-

cratic rivals. They also, particu-

larly after her success in the first

debate, have stressed to Ms. Har-

ris that voters respond positively

when she leans into her biography

as a child of immigrants with a

barrier-breaking career.

In an interview last week with

The New York Times, Ms. Harris

appeared unfazed by the fluctua-

tions of the summer or the pres-

sure to have another well-re-

ceived debate performance.

In recent weeks, the California

senator has tried to differentiate

her policy message from Demo-

cratic rivals — offering her own

plans on health care, climate

change and criminal justice re-

form. She has also noticeably

eradicated go-to phrases like “we

need to have that conversation”

from her public vocabulary, after

criticism she seemed too cautious.

“Maybe I’ve made it more clear,

but I’ve been clear the whole

time,” Ms. Harris said of her policy

vision. “I’ve always thought and

talked about what wakes people

up in the middle of the night.”

Still, at times, Ms. Harris’s at-

tempts to occupy a pragmatic

middle ground between progres-

sive firebrands and old-school

Democratic moderates can land in

awkward ways. In late July, she

said “I’m not trying to restructure

society,” but in recent weeks she

has released a criminal justice

plan that would overhaul prisons

and police practices, and em-

braced the possible elimination of

the Senate filibuster to pass the

Green New Deal.

“I plan on restructuring things

in a way that will address those

things that wake people up in the

middle of the night,” Ms. Harris

clarified last week. “That’s the

consistent through line from the

beginning. And frankly, even be-

fore I ran, I’ve always thought

about it around that kind of meta-

phor.”

Mr. Sanders and Ms. Warren of-

ten target Wall Street corpora-

tions as the root cause of people’s

problems, and Mr. Biden has sin-

gled out President Trump as a

unique existential threat. When

asked what she views as the root

cause of societal problems, Ms.

Harris said leaders do not see and

understand the tangible hard-

ships of working families.

“It is not about some textbook

stuff. It is not some intellectual

stuff. It’s not some ideological

stuff,” she said. “It literally is,

what is that person experienc-

ing?”

“So maybe it’s my life experi-

ences,” Ms. Harris added. “But

these aren’t intellectual things for

me. ‘What keeps people up at

night?’ — those have had a pro-

found impact, a profound effect,

on me.”

It is this type of self-assured-

ness that supporters hope they

will see from her on the debate

stage. Some sounded almost

giddy that Ms. Harris was not

likely to be a primary focus of ei-

ther the moderators or her oppo-

nents. Instead, they said, she

would have a prime opportunity to

forcefully remind the country that

there is a reason people have been

whispering about her running for

president since she arrived in

Washington.

Leah Greenberg, the co-execu-

tive director of the advocacy

group Indivisible, said she still be-

lieves Ms. Harris can win over

progressive voters, but it would

require her embracing the lan-

guage of systemic reform —

which Ms. Harris has rejected in

the past.

“We’ve been really pleased to

see her coming forward on cli-

mate change and on criminal jus-

tice,” Ms. Greenberg said. “But it

does feel like she needs to talk

about what is the overarching vi-

sion that connects those pieces,

which are really about significant

societal change and structural re-

form.”

Aimee Allison, founder and

president of She the People, the

black women's organization that

held a presidential forum this year

that included Ms. Harris, said a

generous amount of good will still

exists for her candidacy. However,

the campaign has — to this point

— been defined by a series of “one

step forward, two step back mo-

ments,” she said.

“People want a sense of political

courage,” Ms. Allison said.

She offered Ms. Harris a suc-

cinct pre-debate message: “She

better come correct.”

Kamala Harris is polling closer to the bottom rung of Democratic candidates than to the top tier.

ELIZABETH FRANTZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

‘Timing Is Right’ for Harris to Recapture Magic

By ASTEAD W. HERNDON

A campaign’s promise

and pitfalls have been

on full display in the

past week.

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