Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said Sunday that a woman with the same experience as fellow 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg would not be on the debate stage.
Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Klobuchar noted that Buttigieg, who is the mayor of South Bend, Ind., and every other 2020 Democrat is more qualified than President Trump, but questioned if a woman with Buttigieg’s experience would have the same chance to become president.
{mosads}“Of the women on the stage, I’m focusing here on my fellow women senators, Sens. Harris and Warren and myself, do I think we would be standing on that stage if we had the experience that he had? No, I don’t,” Klobuchar said, referring to two other female Democratic candidates: Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Kamala Harris (Calif.)
“Maybe we’re held to a different standard,” she added.
Klobuchar, who is currently polling behind the leaders in the crowded Democratic primary, pointed to her ability to win a statewide race as to why she is more qualified to be president than Buttigieg.
“I’m the one from the Midwest that’s actually won in a statewide race over and over again,” she said, pointing to suburban and rural Democratic voters in Kentucky and Virginia that pushed the party to wins last Tuesday in races typically won by Republicans.
“Those are the kind of voters I’ve won and that’s not true of Mayor Pete,” Klobuchar added.
The three-term senator has positioned herself as a moderate from the Midwest that can win rural swing voters that overwhelmingly went for Trump in the 2016 election.
Buttigieg, however, has polled well in early voting state Iowa and garnered momentum as a leading moderate candidate in the field alongside former Vice President Joe Biden.