February 10, 2019

Amy Klobuchar Just Officially Announced She’s Running for President

Carolyn Kaster/AP

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On Sunday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) officially announced that she’s throwing her hat into the growing field of Democrats who want to take on Donald Trump in 2020.

“I am running for every American, I am running for you,” Sen. Klobuchar announced to a crowd of cheering supporters unfazed by the heavy snow on Boom Island, outside of Minneapolis. The third-term Senator has been serving since 2006 and has handily won both of her re-election campaigns.

“It’s time to organize, time to galvanize, and time to take back our democracy,” Sen. Klobuchar said. During her announcement, she made pledges that tap into all of the issues that Democratic voters have galvanized behind, including restoring voting rights, combating climate change, comprehensive immigration reform, and universal health care.

But before Sen. Klobuchar could make her official announcement, she was dogged by reports of abusive behavior towards her staffers. According to HuffPost, a campaign memo revealed that while traveling with the Senator, staffers were expected to put away her clothing and pick up any trash left behind. In a Buzzfeed News report, Sen. Klobuchar allegedly threw objects and humiliated staffers in late night emails. However, other staffers have said that while the senator is tough to work for, she’s not abusive. Some have also said the Senator is a victim of the way the media treats female bosses. 

Sen. Klobuchar is seen as one of the rising stars of the Democratic Party and December polling among Iowa caucus goers showed her coming in fourth place only behind Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Beto O’Rourke. 

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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