Excerpts from Senator Amy Klobuchar’s remarks, as prepared for delivery:
We are gathered here today on the Mississippi River—America’s great river, running straight through the middle of our country, through the heartland. It takes its name from a Native American word for “The Father of Waters.” …
The Mississippi River… all our rivers connect us… to one another. To our shared story. For that is how this country was founded, with patriots who saw more that united them than divided them.
And that is how this city—the Mill City—and our country prospered, right along this river and our nation’s railways and roads, grounded in the common belief that prosperity shared leads to better lives for all. And this is how we became the world’s beacon of democracy, one in which everyone matters.
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We start in this place where about a mile downriver, on a beautiful summer day, a big bridge collapsed into this river … And suddenly the eyes of the nation were on our state. And that day America saw in a very visceral way that everyone matters. Everyone.
They saw it in the off-duty firefighter who dove into the murky water, over and over again, looking for survivors among dozens of trucks and cars.
They saw it in the story of Paul Eickstadt, the semi-truck driver, who sacrificed his own life by veering off the road to save a school bus full of kids.
They saw it in the school staff member, Jeremy Hernandez, who rescued each and every kid on that miracle school bus as it hung precariously next to a guardrail after plummeting thirty feet.
Later, we worked across the aisle to get the federal funding and we rebuilt that I-35W bridge—in just over a year.
That’s community. That’s a shared story. That’s ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
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But that sense of community is fracturing across our nation right now, worn down by the petty and vicious nature of our politics. We are all tired of the shutdowns and the putdowns, the gridlock and the grandstanding. Our nation must be governed not from chaos but from opportunity. Not by wallowing over what’s wrong, but my marching inexorably toward what’s right.
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My family’s story is like many of yours. On both my mom and my dad’s side, they arrived in this country with nothing but a suitcase. But they made a home here….They didn’t know anyone. But like so many immigrants, they wanted a better life for their families.
My grandpa worked 1,500 feet underground in the mines up North on the Iron Range. He never graduated from high school. He saved money in a coffee can in the basement and sent my dad to college.
My dad, whose here with us today at age 90, got a two-year degree from Vermilion Junior College, and then finished up at the University of Minnesota. He became a journalist….
My mom, a proud union member, taught second grade in the suburbs until she was 70 years old. Her students, now grown, still come up to me on the street and tell me she was their favorite teacher.
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So today, on an island in the middle of the mighty Mississippi, in our nation’s heartland, at a time when we must heal the heart of our democracy and renew our commitment to the common good, I stand before you as the granddaughter of an iron ore miner, the daughter of a teacher and a newspaperman, the first woman elected to the United States Senate from the State of Minnesota…
...I will look you in the eye. I will tell you what I think. I will focus on getting things done. That’s what I’ve done my whole life. And no matter what, I’ll lead from the heart.
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Let me be blunt: for too long leaders in Washington have sat on the sidelines while others try to figure out what to do about our changing economy and its impact on our lives, what to do about the disruptive nature of new technologies, income inequality, the political and geographic divides, the changing climate, the tumult in our world.
For a moment, let’s stop seeing those obstacles as obstacles on our path. Let’s see those obstacles as our path.
This is what I mean.
There are insidious forces every day that are trying to make it harder for people to vote, trying to drown out our voices with big money.
It’s time to organize. Time to galvanize. Time to take back our democracy. It’s time, America!
Time to pass a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and get the dark money out of our politics.
It’s time to stop discriminatory actions by restoring the Voting Rights Act.
Time to pass my bill to automatically register every young person when they turn 18.
You see the obstacles they’re throwing at us with big money and limits on voting, they’re obstacles but they’re also our path.
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I’m asking you to join us on this campaign. It’s a homegrown one. I don’t have a political machine. I don’t come from money. But what I do have is this: I have grit. I have family. I have friends. I have neighbors. I have all of you who are willing to come out in the middle of the winter, all of you who took the time to watch us today, all of you who are willing to stand up and say people matter.
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I’m asking you to not look down and not look away. I’m asking you to look up. To look at each other. To look to the future before us. Let us rise to the occasion and meet the challenges of our day.
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Let us cross the river of our divides and walk across our sturdy bridge to higher ground.
Senator Klobuchar will make her announcement tomorrow in Minneapolis on the Mississippi River, which runs straight through the middle of our country, through the heartland.
Thousands of supporters and friends are expected to join Senator Klobuchar and her family for this special announcement on a beautiful February day. (And if you ask a Minnesotan, 17 degrees is really not that cold.) Over 100 volunteers will hand out hand warmers, cookies, and hot cocoa.
DJ Dudley D, who traveled with Prince for many years, will provide music and entertainment, as well as the Grammy Award-winning Sounds of Blackness from the Twin Cities.
Senator Klobuchar will be joined by U.S. Senator Tina Smith, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, Duluth Mayor Emily Larson, Moorhead Mayor Jonathan Judd as well as commissioners and legislators from across the state.
