New Hampshire

Sen. Amy Klobuchar Focuses on Opioid Addiction During Nashua Visit

A 2020 presidential hopeful shared a personal story in New Hampshire Monday as she addressed the opioid epidemic.

Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota told voters in Nashua that she grew up with an alcoholic father.

"He was drunk at graduations, and he wasn't there at Christmas, or late," Klobuchar said at the Revive Recovery Center. "I would have to literally take the keys away from him."

Klobuchar is making her plan to combat addiction and prioritize mental health one of the central issues of her presidential campaign.

As some front-runners tout Medicare for All and tuition-free college, Klobuchar has taken a more measured approach.

"She's somebody who has always presented herself as a politician who's able to work across the aisle, to actually have legislative outcomes that she can point to," said political analyst Dean Spiliotes of Southern New Hampshire University. "A lot of times, that involves compromise."

But is compromise a winning strategy at a time when many Democratic primary voters are trying to push candidates further to the left?

"I consider myself a proven progressive. And that means that I get things done," Klobuchar said. "What is being a progressive if you don't make progress?"

Klobuchar says that she supports universal health care, but she prefers to build on the Affordable Care Act. She also supports free two-year community college, but she says the country can't afford a free four-year college system.

Political observers say Klobuchar doesn't need to win the New Hampshire primary to have a viable candidacy, but that she needs to move up from her current standing in the middle of the pack.

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