Klobuchar, O’Rourke visit Wisconsin as 2020 race heats up

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) stopped in Wisconsin this weekend to underscore the Democratic Party’s push in the Midwest as the 2020 presidential campaign gets into full swing.

Klobuchar made Wisconsin her first stop since announcing her candidacy last Sunday in Minneapolis. 

“I want to build on the momentum that we saw here in 2018,” Klobuchar told reporters Saturday, according to CNN. “No one ever thought that the Democrats were going to be able [to defeat] Gov. Walker, but we did it, and we did it in a smart, Wisconsin way with a grass-roots campaign with [Democratic Sen.] Tammy Baldwin at the top of the ticket, and we can do it in the presidential, as well.”

{mosads}Klobuchar added that she planned to campaign in places “that maybe we didn’t focus on enough in the last few years,” CNN reported. The comment mirrored a veiled critique of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign that Klobuchar made upon her announcement.

O’Rourke, meanwhile, who has not yet announced whether he’ll launch a presidential campaign, stopped at two colleges in Wisconsin.

“I want to make sure that I’m listening to everyone — not just those that I know in El Paso and in Texas, but everyone, including going to places that are forgotten or overlooked or have not been visited enough or are only thought about in calculations as you accumulate electoral votes or you think about the next election,” O’Rourke reportedly told supporters on Friday, according to CNN.

President Trump won Wisconsin in the 2016 election, beating Clinton by less than 23,000 votes. The state had gone to the Democratic presidential candidate in each of the seven elections prior.

Klobuchar is one of roughly a dozen Democrats to either declare their candidacy for president or form an exploratory committee. She joins Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Cory Booker (N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.) and Kamala Harris (Calif.), among others.

O’Rourke is one of several figures mulling a Democratic presidential bid. Among those expected to enter the field are former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).