Klobuchar to headline Dem banquet in Iowa amid 2020 speculation

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) is set to headline a local Democratic banquet in Iowa later this month, a move that’s likely to fuel speculation that the Minnesota Democrat is close to mounting a 2020 White House bid.

Klobuchar will appear at the Ankeny Area Democrats Winter Banquet and Fundraiser on Feb. 21, according to a release emailed to reporters Tuesday. Politico first reported news of the trip.

{mosads}“We’re incredibly excited to have Senator Klobuchar headlining our event,” Mary McAdams, the acting chairwoman of the Ankeny Area Democrats, said in a statement. “People really liked what she had to say when she visited to help our local candidates in 2018.”

If she enters the presidential race, Klobuchar, a three-term senator, would become the second candidate from the Midwest to throw her name into the running for the 2020 Democratic nomination after Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind.

That could give her a leg up in a region of the country that’s seen as crucial to defeating President Trump in 2020.

News of Klobuchar’s plans to headline the banquet comes after a former aide to the senator, Jeannette Cleland, who also served as former first lady Michelle Obama’s deputy director of scheduling, filed a permit application for a Saturday event at Boom Island Park in Minneapolis.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune first reported on the permit application.

If Klobuchar enters the race, she’ll join an already crowded field of Democratic primary contenders that includes four of her fellow senators, Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.).