Klobuchar Is Riding a Post-Debate Surge—to the Tune of $2.5 Million

She has a sense of momentum in New Hampshire and a fundraising haul to match.

Amy Klobuchar speaks during the McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club Dinner on Saturday in Manchester, New Hampshire.Mary Altaffer/AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Amy Klobuchar, riding a wave of momentum from the Friday Democratic presidential debate, has raised $2.5 million in the two days since. The senator from Minnesota broke the news of her fundraising haul in front of a large crowd in New Hampshire on Sunday, two days ahead of the primary election here.

The crowd at the Manchester get-out-the-vote rally was big—with at least five hundred supporters filling a large room to capacity at Southern New Hampshire University—and the crowd excitable, but the biggest cheers weren’t for promises of a new liberal agenda. The crowd wanted to hear about electability, moderation, and bipartisanship. In fact, the biggest cheer of the afternoon was for praise of Mitt Romney and his vote for impeachment. The crowd’s enthusiasm for the former GOP presidential nominee seemed to surprise even Klobuchar.

“The world is upside down and that tells it all,” she laughed.

Her message of moderation was a hit, though. “I don’t always see things in extremes,” she said, in another crowd-pleasing set piece. “If you’re tired of the extremes, you have a home with me.”

Klobuchar didn’t disparage any other candidates by name, but she was blunt in her assessment that some of her rivals were promising too much, like free college tuition for all. Klobuchar explained her platform of supporting free tuition for one- and two-year college programs and reducing, but not eliminating, the cost of four-year college as a matter of prudence and necessity. 

“Sorry, we’re not going to have a shortage of sports marketing degrees,” she told the crowd. “We’re going to have a shortage of plumbers.”

Klobuchar’s Friday night debate performance arguably gave her the juice to make jabs like that. The $2.5 million she raised in the past two days is a huge number for her: Over the course of her entire campaign, she has raised $28.8 million, and in the last three months, she raised just $11.4 million. It was a boost that she told the crowd empowered her to stay in the fight into South Carolina and Nevada. 

She continually referred to her debate performance in Manchester, and for some audience members, the prospect of Klobuchar debating Trump seemed to be one of the bigger reasons for their support.

“I think she’d destroy Trump in a debate,” said Vin Sylvia, who had travelled from Massachusetts to see Klobuchar.

Heather Webster said she had been considering Biden, but he had disappointed her at the debate.

“I was leaning towards him until Friday,” she said, before Klobuchar took the stage. “I just don’t feel good about his debate style. But there’s something about her confidence.”

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate