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Feb. 10 (UPI) -- Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar officially announced Sunday that she will run for president in the 2020 election. Speaking to a crowd of supporters in the snow at Boom Island Park near downtown Minneapolis, Klobuchar, 58, declared she will join the growing field of Democratic candidates seeking a nomination to oppose President Donald Trump in the upcoming election.
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"I stand before you as the granddaughter of an iron ore miner, as the daughter of a teacher and a newspaperman, as the first woman elected to the United States Senate from the state of Minnesota, to announce my candidacy for president of the United States," she said.
In the 20-minute speech, Klobuchar presented the priorities of her platform and pledged to run for all Americans.
"I am running for every parent who wants a better world for their kids. I'm running for every student who wants a good education," she said. "For every senior who wants affordable prescription drugs. For every worker, farmer, dreamer and builder. I am running for every American. I am running for you."
She also sought to highlight her Midwestern sensibilities to set herself apart from some of the other prominent Democratic candidates.
"I don't come from money," she said. "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."
Klobuchar became the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from Minnesota in 2016 and won 43 Minnesota counties that Trump had won two years earlier and 51 of 87 counties overall when she won reelection in 2018. During her first reelection bid in 2012, she won all but two counties.
She also ranked first among all 100 senators in the number of bills signed into law during the 2015-2016 session of Congress. She has also voted with Trump 31.5 percent of the time, higher than any other Democratic candidate, according to FiveThirtyEight.
While she has achieved legislative success by working with Republicans, as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, she has opposed Trump by voting against his supreme court nominees Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch and most of his Cabinet nominees, including Jeff Sessions, Betsy DeVos, Steven Mnuchin, Rick Perry and Ben Carson.
During her speech Sunday, Klobuchar called for a return to order and unity in government.
"Today, on this snowy day on this island, we say 'Enough is enough.' our nation must be governed not from chaos but from opportunity, not by what's wrong, but by marching toward what's right," she said.
