Amy Klobuchar | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Klobuchar in 2025 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| United States Senator fromMinnesota | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Assumed office January 3, 2007 Serving with Tina Smith | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Mark Dayton | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| County Attorney ofHennepin County | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office January 5, 1999 – January 3, 2007 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Michael Freeman | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Michael Freeman | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | Amy Jean Klobuchar (1960-05-25)May 25, 1960 (age 65) Plymouth, Minnesota, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Party | Democratic (DFL) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Children | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Parent | Jim Klobuchar (father) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Relatives | Zola Jesus (cousin) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Education | Yale University (BA) University of Chicago (JD) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Signature |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Website | Senate website Campaign website | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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U.S. Senator from Minnesota Presidential campaign
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Amy Jean Klobuchar (/ˈkloʊbəʃɑːr/KLOH-bə-shar; born May 25, 1960) is an American politician and lawyer serving as theseniorUnited States senator fromMinnesota, a seat she has held since 2007. A member of theMinnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), Minnesota's affiliate of theDemocratic Party, she previously served ascounty attorney ofHennepin County, Minnesota. She is running for governor of Minnesota inthe 2026 election.[1]
Born inPlymouth, Minnesota, Klobuchar graduated fromYale University and theUniversity of Chicago Law School. She was a partner at twoMinneapolis law firms before being electedcounty attorney ofHennepin County in 1998, making her responsible for allcriminal prosecution in Minnesota's most populous county. Klobuchar was first elected to the Senate in2006, succeedingMark Dayton to become Minnesota's first electedfemale United States senator. She became Minnesota's senior senator in 2009, whenNorm Coleman left the Senate following hisdefeat. She was reelected by a landslide in2012, winning 85 of the state's 87 counties, before being reelected again in2018.[2] Klobuchar's political positions align withmodern liberalism. She has focused on healthcare reform,consumer protection,abortion rights,agriculture, andclimate change.[3][4][5]
On February 10, 2019, Klobuchar announcedher candidacy for theDemocratic nomination for president of the United States in the2020 election; on March 2, 2020, she suspended her campaign and endorsedJoe Biden.[6][7] In 2021, she became the chair of theSenate Rules Committee. She was reelected to a fourth Senate term in2024, defeating Republican nomineeRoyce White. In January 2026, she announced her candidacy forgovernor of Minnesota after incumbentTim Walz withdrew from the race.[8][9]
Born inPlymouth, Minnesota, Klobuchar is the daughter of Rose (née Heuberger) andJim Klobuchar. Her mother taught second grade until she retired at age 70.[10] Her father was a sportswriter and columnist for theStar Tribune.[11] He was ofSlovene descent and her mother ofGerman-Swiss ancestry.[12][13]
Klobuchar's parents divorced when she was 15. The divorce took a toll on the family; her relationship with her father was not fully restored until he quit drinking in the 1990s.[14]
She attended public schools in Plymouth and wasvaledictorian atWayzata High School,[15][16] where she was also class treasurer and secretary.[17] She received herBachelor of Artsmagna cum laude inpolitical science in 1982 fromYale University.[18] While at Yale, Klobuchar spent time as an intern for former Vice President and former Minnesota senatorWalter Mondale.[19] Her senior thesis,Uncovering the Dome,[20] a 250-page history of the ten years of politics surrounding the building of theHubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis, was published by Waveland Press in 1986. After Yale, Klobuchar enrolled at theUniversity of Chicago Law School, where she served as an associate editor of theUniversity of Chicago Law Review and earned herJ.D. degree with high honors in 1985.[21]
After law school, Klobuchar worked as acorporate lawyer.[19] Before seeking public office, besides working as a prosecutor, Klobuchar was a partner at the Minnesota law firmsDorsey & Whitney andGray Plant Mooty, where she specialized in "regulatory work in telecommunications law".[22][23][24] Her first foray into politics came after she gave birth and was forced to leave the hospital 24 hours later, a situation exacerbated by the fact that Klobuchar's daughter, Abigail,[19] was born with a disorder that prevented her from swallowing. The experience led Klobuchar to appear before theMinnesota State Legislature, advocating for a bill that would guarantee new mothers a 48-hour hospital stay. Minnesota passed the bill andPresident Bill Clinton later made the policy federal law.[19]
Klobuchar was first a candidate for public office in 1994 when she ran forHennepin County attorney. But she had pledged to drop out if the incumbent,Michael Freeman, got back in the race after failing to win the endorsement of theMinnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor (DFL) Party for governor. Keeping this pledge, she quit the race in June 1994 and supported Freeman for reelection.[25] Before running for office, Klobuchar was active in supporting DFL candidates, including Freeman in 1990. The county attorney election is nonpartisan, but Freeman, like Klobuchar, is a Democrat.
Klobuchar was elected Hennepin County attorney in 1998, running after Freeman declined to seek an additional term.[26][19] In the nonpartisan election, she defeatedRepublican Sheryl Ramstad Hvass by a margin of less than 1%. Klobuchar was reelected unopposed in 2002.[27]
In 2001,Minnesota Lawyer named her "Attorney of the Year".[28][29] Klobuchar was president of the Minnesota County Attorneys Association from November 2002 to November 2003.[30]
In 2002, Klobuchar spearheaded an effort that resulted in state laws being altered to allow felony charges to be brought against repeatdrunk driving offenders. In 2003, Klobuchar dealt with one of her highest-profile cases when the Hennepin County Attorney's Office brought several charges against former professional baseball playerKirby Puckett related to an alleged sex crime. Puckett was acquitted by a jury of all charges brought against him.[27]
Klobuchar took a "tough-on-crime" approach. At the time she took office, there was a crime wave in Minneapolis, with the city's murder rate much higher than the national rate. Klobuchar had won election on the slogan "More Trials, More Convictions". She pursued heavier sentencing and less favorableplea deals, and sought to bring more cases to trial. By the end of her first year, she had significantly increased the number of cases brought and convictions secured.[31] Under Klobuchar, the Hennepin County Attorney's Office prosecuted people for possession ofkhat. At the time, it was rare in the United States for prosecutors to pursue prosecution on such charges.[32] Klobuchar also brought felony charges against a number of men for failure to paychild support.[33]
Klobuchar pursued tougher sentencing in hopes of deterring crime. For some smaller offenses, such as vandalism, she regularly sought sentences that exceeded the recommended duration. This was true for both adult and minor defendants. For property crime offenders who had five prior convictions, Klobuchar's office similarly pursued longer sentences than had been recommended.[33] Klobuchar declared that she intended to scrutinize judges who were "letting offenders off the hook too easily". In 2000, a successful appeal by Klobuchar lengthened by two days a sentence that a judge gave an immigrant defendant, which placed the defendant at a greatly increased risk of deportation. The judge had originally imposed a sentence of 364 days. A sentence of 365 days or greater was likely to lead to the defendant's deportation, and the two days Klobuchar added placed the defendant over that threshold. An analysis by theVera Institute of Justice found that during Klobuchar's tenure, there was a 20% increase in the number of prison inmates in Hennepin County, which the analysis attributed to the harsher sentences Klobuchar sought.[31]
During Klobuchar's tenure, there was a decrease in the disparity between the rates ofAfrican American and white rates of imprisonment, but the disparity remained pronounced,[31] at quadruple the national average (per the Vera Institute of Justice).[33]
Klobuchar successfully prosecuted teenage defendant Myon Burrell for the 2002 murder of 11-year-old Tyesha Edwards by gunshot. Both Burrell and Edwards were African American. For much of her subsequent career, Klobuchar highlighted this case, framing it both as an example of her toughness on crime as well as an example of her fighting to provide justice for African-American communities affected by gun crime. Burrell remained steadfast in claiming that he was innocent. In late January 2020, during Klobuchar's presidential campaign, theAssociated Press called attention to flaws in the case against Burrell, and quoted a co-defendant in the trial as having admitted that he, not Burrell, had actually fired the shot that killed Edwards.[34]APM Reports also uncovered further consequential flaws with the case against Burrell.[35] Due to these circumstances, his sentence wascommuted by theMinnesota Board of Pardons in December 2020.[36]
In2004, Klobuchar supportedthe presidential campaign of U.S. senatorJohn Kerry, traveling across Minnesota as a campaign surrogate.[27]
Klobuchar did not prosecute any cases related topolice brutality.[37] During her tenure, Hennepin County saw 30 recorded police-involved deaths.[38] Some of these deaths resulted in public controversy, but Klobuchar did not bring any charges.[37] As was common practice at the time, especially in Minnesota, to determine whether to bring charges in such instances, Klobuchar relied ongrand jury recommendations.[39] Critics of her use of grand juries alleged that it lacked transparency and was perhaps a tactic for Klobuchar to distance herself from responsibility for the decisions made.[31][39] After the 2020murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis Police custody, renewed attention was brought to Klobuchar's tenure as Hennepin County Attorney. She was retrospectively criticized for not prosecuting police misconduct during her tenure. Attention was also brought to the fact that during Klobuchar's tenure an officer-involved killing had occurred that involved OfficerDerek Chauvin, who later murdered Floyd. This killing did not result in prosecution. The killing occurred in October 2006, several months before Klobuchar left office, and a grand jury was empaneled by her successor (Freeman, who returned for a second stint as county attorney). The grand jury did not recommend any charges.[40] This renewed scrutiny arose several months after Klobuchar concluded her presidential campaign, and while reporting had named her as a potentialrunning mate ofpresumptive Democratic nomineeJoe Biden.[41]
In early 2005, after U.S. senatorMark Dayton announced that he would not seek reelection in 2006, Klobuchar became an early favorite for theDFL nomination. She had originally planned to run forattorney general of Minnesota, but was persuaded to run for Senate.[27][42]Emily's List endorsed her on September 29, 2005, and Klobuchar won the DFL endorsement on June 9, 2006. She gained the support of the majority of DFL state legislators inMinnesota during the primaries. A poll of DFL state delegates showed Klobuchar beating her then closest opponent,Patty Wetterling, 66% to 15%. In January Wetterling dropped out of the race and endorsed Klobuchar. Former Senate candidate and prominent lawyerMike Ciresi, who was widely seen as a serious potential DFL candidate, indicated in early February that he would not enter the race; that was viewed as an important boost for Klobuchar.[42]
In the general election Klobuchar facedRepublican candidateMark Kennedy,Independence Party candidate Robert Fitzgerald,Constitution candidate Ben Powers, andGreen Party candidate Michael Cavlan. Klobuchar led in the polls throughout the campaign, and won with 58% of the vote to Kennedy's 38% and Fitzgerald's 3%, carrying 79 of Minnesota's 87 counties. She is the first woman to be elected U.S. senator from Minnesota. (Muriel Humphrey, the state's first female senator and formersecond lady of the United States, was appointed to fillher husband's unexpired term and not elected.)[43]
Klobuchar won a second term in the U.S. Senate, defeating Republican state representativeKurt Bills by a margin of 35 percentage points (65.23% to 30.53%), carrying all but two counties.[44][45]
Klobuchar ran for a third term and was reelected by a 24-point margin.[46] The Republican nominee was state representativeJim Newberger. The race was not seen as close, with Klobuchar outraising Newberger $9.9 million to $210,066 as of October 17. Klobuchar maintained a double-digit lead in the polls all autumn.[47]
In 2024, Klobuchar won a fourth term. In May, she won the DFL endorsement to be the Democratic nominee for the race.[48] She won the primary election on August 13, and defeated Republican nomineeRoyce White in the general election.[49]
A September 2009 poll found 58% of Minnesotans approved of the job Klobuchar was doing and 36% disapproved.[50] On March 12, 2010,Rasmussen Reports indicated 67% of Minnesotans approved of the job she was doing. TheWinona Daily News described her as a "rare politician who works across the aisle".Walter Mondale said, "She has done better in that miserable Senate than most people there."[51]
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At the end of the114th Congress in late 2016, Klobuchar had passed more legislation than any other senator.[52] In February 2017 she called for an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate ties between Russia and PresidentDonald Trump and his administration. Concern about Trump's ties to Russia increased after reports that his campaign officials had repeated contact with senior Russian intelligence officials before the 2016 United States elections.[53][54] Klobuchar had already signaled her interest in U.S.–Russia relations in December 2016 when she joined Republican senatorsJohn McCain andLindsey Graham on a trip to the Baltic states and Ukraine.[55] She maintained high approval ratings throughout 2017, with an April 2017Star Tribune poll placing her approval rating at 72%.[56] In October 2017Morning Consult listed Klobuchar among the 10 senators with the highest approval ratings, and a November 2017KSTP-TV poll put her approval rating at 56%.[57][58] An April 2019 Morning Consult poll found Klobuchar to be the third-most popular sitting senator, with a 58% approval rating and 26% disapproval rating, behind only Vermont senatorsBernie Sanders andPatrick Leahy.[59]
According to the Center for Effective Lawmaking, Klobuchar scored "above expectations" with respect to how successful she was at moving significant legislation in the 115th Congress (2017–18).[60]
During theBrett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination hearings in 2018, Kavanaugh gave heated responses to Klobuchar's questions about whether he had ever experiencedmemory loss after consuming alcohol, for which he later apologized.[61]
There has been negative publicity about Klobuchar's treatment of her staff throughout her tenure in office.[62][63] In February 2019,BuzzFeed News reported that interviews with former staffers and reviews of emails indicated that Klobuchar frequently abused and humiliated her employees, requiring significant staff time to manage her ire. The article reported that other employees found her to be "fair and effective" and a good boss.[64]Politico reported that Klobuchar had the highest annual staff turnover rate of any senator—36%—between 2011 and 2016.[65] AHuffington Post article alleged she had a reputation for mistreating her staff, with some staff alleging she was prone to bursts of cruelty.[66] In response to the negative reports, 61 former staffers wrote an open letter praising Klobuchar, stating that she was a caring "mentor and friend" to them.[67]
In the 115th Congress, she was absent for 0.5% of votes, with two-thirds of the senators missing more votes.[68] In the 116th Congress (2019–2021), during her presidential campaign, she had missed 39.1% of votes as of January 2020, making her the 5th-most absent senator.[69]
Klobuchar was at the U.S. Capitol when Trump supportersstormed it on January 6, 2021. As ranking Democrat on the Senate Rules Committee, she and SenatorRoy Blunt co-led Senate deliberations during the2021 United States Electoral College vote count.[70] She also served as a teller, along with Blunt, RepresentativeRodney Davis, and RepresentativeZoe Lofgren.[71] After Senate Republicans, led by SenatorTed Cruz, objected to certifying Arizona's electoral votes, Klobuchar participated in the debate on the Senate floor. Shortly after she gave her remarks, the Capitol was breached.[72] As the Senate adjourned, Klobuchar was alerted on her phone that shots were fired inside the Capitol, which she announced to those present.[73] Immediately, Klobuchar, fellow senators, staff and journalists were evacuated from the chambers to a secure location.[73][74] When the Capitol was secure, Congress reconvened and the election count was certified in the early morning of January 7. Klobuchar supported the certification. Later that day, Klobuchar said she supported the invocation of theTwenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution to remove Trump from office "because you cannot have a president basically leading an insurrection against our own country's government."[75] She also called for investigations into the breach.[76]
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Klobuchar was the first speaker atJoe Biden's inauguration on January 20, 2021.[77][78]
On March 30, 2008, Klobuchar announced her endorsement of SenatorBarack Obama in theDemocratic presidential primary, promising hersuperdelegate vote to him.[79] She cited his performance in the Minnesota caucuses, where he won with 66% of the popular vote, as well as her own "independent judgment". In 2016 she was an early supporter ofHillary Clinton's second campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.[80]
Klobuchar has served as the chair of theU.S. Senate Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee since 2015.[81] She became the steering chair of the committee in 2017, withBernie Sanders as the outreach chair.[82] Both represented the Democratic Party in a 2017 televised debate on healthcare policy and the possible repeal of theAffordable Care Act onCNN.[83]
In 2020, Klobuchar was speculated to be a possible candidate forsecretary of agriculture orUnited States attorney general in theBiden administration.[84]
On July 31, 2025, adeepfake video of Klobuchar was published onTwitter[85] and went viral.[86][87] The video used footage of a July 30 Senate hearing[87][88] and purported to show her speaking vulgarly in response toAmerican Eagle's July 2025 ad campaign involvingSydney Sweeney.[86][87][88] In aNew York Timesop-ed on the subject published on August 20,[89] Klobuchar wrote that Twitter "refused to take it down or label it" asAI-generated, instead recommending that she try to have aCommunity Note added to the tweet.[87][88] She implored Congress to pass legislation regulating deepfakes and other AI-generated content.[86][87]
119th Congress (Current)[90]
In the118th Congress, Klobuchar served on the following standing committees:
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In the117th Congress, Klobuchar served on the following standing committees:
In the116th Congress, Klobuchar served on the following standing committees:[112]
In her firstCongress, the110th Congress, Klobuchar was assigned to the following committees:[119]
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The New York Times andThe New Yorker named Klobuchar as one of the women most likely to become the first female president of the United States,[123][124] andMSNBC andThe New Yorker named her as a possible nominee to theU.S. Supreme Court.[125][126]
On February 10, 2019, Klobuchar announced her candidacy in the2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries.[127] She has said that she uses humor as one way to distinguish herself among the many other Democratic candidates in the 2020 campaign.[128]
On January 19, 2020,The New York Times editorial board endorsed Klobuchar andElizabeth Warren for president.[129][130]
On March 2, 2020, the day beforeSuper Tuesday, Klobuchar suspended her campaign and endorsedJoe Biden.[131]
On May 21, 2020, it was reported that Biden asked several women, including Klobuchar, to undergo formal vetting for consideration as his vice-presidential running mate.[132][133] On June 18, Klobuchar withdrew herself from consideration, saying that Biden should choose a woman of color.[134]
On January 22, 2026, Klobuchar filed to run forgovernor of Minnesota after incumbentTim Walz withdrew from the race.[8] On January 29, she officially confirmed her candidacy.[9]
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Klobuchar's political positions have generally been in line withmodern American liberalism. She ispro-choice on abortion, supportsLGBT rights and theAffordable Care Act, and was critical of theIraq War. During the 115th Congress, she voted in line with PresidentDonald Trump's position on legislation 31.1 percent of the time.[135]
According toGovTrack, Klobuchar passed more legislation than any other senator by the end of the114th Congress in late 2016.[52] According toCongress.gov, as of December 16, 2018[update], she had sponsored or co-sponsored 111 pieces of legislation that became law.[136]
In 2023, the Lugar Center ranked Klobuchar in the top fifth of senators for bipartisanship.[137]
Klobuchar introduced theCompetition and Antitrust Law Enforcement Reform Act (S. 225), also known as the Klobuchar Bill, on February 4, 2021. The bill aimed to strengthen U.S. antitrust enforcement by raising standards for certain mergers and requiring dominant firms to prove their deals would not significantly reduce competition. It also proposed banning exclusionary conduct, increasing funding for enforcement agencies, and creating new civil penalties. Supporters saw it as a response to market concentration, while critics expressed concerns about potential overregulation.[138]
The Protect Elections from Deceptive AI Act is bipartisan legislation that would ban the use of artificial intelligence to produce and distribute materially deceptive audio or visual media in federal election communications. Introduced in September 2023 by Senators Klobuchar, Josh Hawley, Chris Coons, and Susan Collins, the bill targets AI-generated “deepfake” content that falsely depicts federal candidates with the intent to influence elections or solicit funds. It includes exemptions for satire, parody, and news reporting. As then-chair of the Senate Rules Committee, Klobuchar advanced the bill through committee in 2024 as part of a broader legislative package on AI and elections.[139][140][141][142]
TheTools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks Act (TAKE IT DOWN Act) is a bipartisan U.S. law addressing the non-consensual online publication of intimate images, including AI-generated “deepfakes.” Introduced in the Senate byTed Cruz with Klobuchar as the lead Democratic co-sponsor, the law criminalizes the knowing distribution or threat to distribute such content in interstate commerce. It also requires social media and other online platforms to remove reported content, and reasonable copies, within 48 hours of receiving notice from a victim. The legislation passed the Senate unanimously in early 2025, was approved by the House in the spring, and was signed into law by President Donald Trump on May 19, 2025.[143][144][145][146]
In 1993, Klobuchar marriedJohn Bessler, a private practice attorney and a professor at theUniversity of Baltimore School of Law. They have a daughter who graduated from Yale University and worked as a legislative director for New York councilmanKeith Powers.[19][147]
Klobuchar is a member of theUnited Church of Christ[148] and is a cousin of musicianZola Jesus.[149][150]
In September 2021, Klobuchar revealed that she had been diagnosed with Stage 1A breast cancer in February 2021, that she had undergone a successfullumpectomy, and that in May she had completed a course ofradiation treatment. In August, her doctors determined that the treatments had all been successful and she was cancer-free.[151] In July 2024, Klobuchar announced that she was still cancer-free after she underwent a small surgery and brief radiation treatment.[152]
Klobuchar's grandparents were immigrants fromSlovenia'sWhite Carniola region. Her paternal grandfather was a miner on Minnesota'sIron Range.[12][13] Her maternal grandparents emigrated fromSwitzerland to the United States.[153]
Klobuchar has received a number of awards during her career.Minnesota Lawyer named her "Attorney of the Year" in 2001[29] andMothers Against Drunk Driving gave her a leadership award for advocating for successful passage of Minnesota's first felony DWI law.[154]Working Mother named her a 2008 "Best in Congress" for her efforts on behalf of working families, andThe American Prospect named her a "woman to watch".[154]
In 2012, Klobuchar received the Sheldon Coleman Great Outdoors Award at a special Great Outdoors Week celebration presented by the American Recreation Coalition.[155] She was one of the recipients of the Agricultural Retailers Association's 2012 Legislator of the Year Award, alongside Republican representativeJohn Mica.[156] In 2013, Klobuchar received an award for her leadership in the fight to prevent sexual assault in the military at a national summit hosted by the Service Women's Action Network (SWAN).[157] Also, in 2013, she received a Friend of CACFP award for her leadership in passing the Healthy Hunger Free Kids act and her efforts to set new nutrition standards for all meals served in the CACFP by the NationalChild and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) Sponsors Association.[158] Klobuchar andSenator Al Franken received the 2014 Friends of Farm Bureau Award from the Minnesota branch of theAmerican Farm Bureau Federation.[159] She received theAmerican Bar Association's Congressional Justice Award in 2015 for her efforts to protect vulnerable populations from violence, exploitation, and assault and to eliminate discrimination in the workplace.[160] Also in 2015 theNational Consumers League honored Klobuchar with the Trumpeter Award for her work "on regulation to strengthen consumer product safety legislation, on ensuring a fair and competitive marketplace, and increasing accessibility to communications, specifically in the wireless space".[161] In 2016, she received the Goodwill Policymaker Award fromGoodwill Industries for her commitment to the nonprofit sector and leading the Nonprofit Energy Efficiency Act.[162] In 2017, she received the Arabella Babb Mansfield Award from theNational Association of Women Lawyers[163] and was chosen as the Mary Louise Smith Chair in Women and Politics for the Carrie Chapman Catt Center atIowa State University.[164] In 2021, Klobuchar received the Award for Distinguished Public Service from theAssociation of American Publishers.[165] During an official visit to Ukraine in August 2022, she was awarded the Ukrainian Order of Merit, First Class fromPresident Zelenskyy.[166] In 2024, she received the Distinguished Public Service Award from The American Legion.[167]
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 After Words interview with Amy Klobuchar onThe Senator Next Door, September 12, 2015,C-SPAN |
Klobuchar has written four books. In 1986, she publishedUncovering the Dome, a case study of the 10-year political struggle to build theHubert H. Humphrey Metrodome.[168] In 2015, she published an autobiography,The Senator Next Door: A Memoir from the Heartland.[169] In 2021,Antitrust: Taking on Monopoly Power from the Gilded Age to the Digital Age was published, a sprawling, 624-page historical overview of antitrust law in the United States, up to the current regulatory issues facingBig Tech, the American public, and the world.[170] In 2023, she publishedThe Joy of Politics.[171]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nonpartisan | Amy Klobuchar | 223,416 | 50.3% | ||
| Nonpartisan | Sheryl Ramstad Hvass | 219,676 | 49.4% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nonpartisan | Amy Klobuchar (incumbent) | 380,632 | 98.7% | ||
| Write-in | 4,829 | 1.3% | |||
Note: The ±% column reflects the change in total number of votes won by each party from the previous election.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic (DFL) | Amy Klobuchar | 294,671 | 92.5% | ||
| Democratic (DFL) | Darryl Stanton | 23,872 | 7.5% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic (DFL) | Amy Klobuchar | 1,278,849 | 58.1% | +9.2% | |
| Republican | Mark Kennedy | 835,653 | 37.9% | −5.4% | |
| Independence | Robert Fitzgerald | 71,194 | 3.2% | −2.6% | |
| Green | Michael Cavlan | 10,714 | 0.5% | N/A | |
| Constitution | Ben Powers | 5,408 | 0.3% | −0.1% | |
| Write-ins | 954 | ||||
| Majority | 443,196 | 20.2% | |||
| Turnout | 2,202,772 | 70.6% | |||
| Democratic (DFL)hold | Swing | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic (DFL) | Amy Klobuchar (incumbent) | 183,766 | 90.8% | ||
| Democratic (DFL) | Dick Franson | 6,837 | 3.4% | ||
| Democratic (DFL) | Jack Edward Shepard | 6,632 | 3.3% | ||
| Democratic (DFL) | Darryl Stanton | 5,155 | 2.6% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic (DFL) | Amy Klobuchar (incumbent) | 1,854,595 | 65.2% | +7.1% | |
| Republican | Kurt Bills | 867,974 | 30.5% | −7.3% | |
| Independence | Stephen Williams | 73,539 | 2.6% | −0.6% | |
| Grassroots | Tim Davis | 30,531 | 1.1% | N/A | |
| Minnesota Open Progressive Party | Michael Cavlan | 13,986 | 0.5% | N/A | |
| Write-ins | 2,582 | 0.1% | +0.1% | ||
| Majority | 986,621 | 34.6% | +14.4% | ||
| Turnout | 2,843,207 | ||||
| Democratic (DFL)hold | Swing | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic (DFL) | Amy Klobuchar (incumbent) | 1,566,174 | 60.3% | −4.9% | |
| Republican | Jim Newberger | 940,437 | 36.2% | +5.7% | |
| Legal Marijuana Now | Dennis Schuller | 66,236 | 2.6% | +2.6% | |
| Green | Paula Overby | 23,101 | 0.9% | +0.9% | |
| Write-ins | 931 | 0.0% | −0.1% | ||
| Majority | 625,737 | 24.1% | −10.5% | ||
| Turnout | 2,596,879 | ||||
| Democratic (DFL)hold | Swing | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic (DFL) | Amy Klobuchar (incumbent) | 1,792,441 | 56.2% | −4.1% | |
| Republican | Royce White | 1,291,712 | 40.5% | +4.3% | |
| Libertarian | Rebecca Whiting | 55,215 | 1.7% | N/A | |
| Independence | Joyce Lacey | 46,377 | 1.5% | N/A | |
| Write-ins | 3,578 | 0.1% | +0.1% | ||
| Majority | 500,729 | 15.7% | −8.4% | ||
| Turnout | 3,189,323 | ||||
| Democratic (DFL)hold | Swing | ||||
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Media from Commons
Quotations from Wikiquote
Texts from Wikisource
Data from Wikidata| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Democratic nominee forU.S. Senator fromMinnesota (Class 1) 2006,2012,2018,2024 | Most recent |
| Preceded by | Chair of theSenate Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee 2015–2017 | Succeeded by Herself as Chair of the Senate Democratic Steering Committee |
| Succeeded byas Chair of the Senate Democratic Outreach Committee | ||
| Preceded by Herself as Chair of the Senate Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee | Chair of theSenate Democratic Steering Committee 2017–2025 | Succeeded by Herself as Chair of the Senate Democratic Steering and Policy Committee |
| Preceded by Herself as Chair of the Senate Democratic Steering Committee | Chair of theSenate Democratic Steering and Policy Committee 2025–present | Incumbent |
| Preceded byas Chair of the Senate Democratic Policy and Communications Committee | ||
| U.S. Senate | ||
| Preceded by | U.S. Senator (Class 1) from Minnesota 2007–present Served alongside:Norm Coleman,Al Franken,Tina Smith | Incumbent |
| Preceded by | Ranking Member of theSenate Rules Committee 2017–2021 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theSenate Rules Committee 2021–2025 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theJoint Printing Committee 2021–2023 | Succeeded by |
| Chair of theJoint Library Committee 2023–2025 | ||
| Preceded by | Chair of theJoint Inaugural Ceremonies Committee 2024–2025 | Vacant |
| Preceded by | Ranking Member of theSenate Agriculture Committee 2025–present | Incumbent |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded by | Order of precedence of the United States as United States Senator | Succeeded by |
| United States senators by seniority 16th | Succeeded by | |
Statewide elected officials and legislative leaders ofMinnesota | ||
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