Institute of Politics

Join the IOP as we welcome U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (JD’85) for a conversation with IOP Director David Axelrod on the recent events in her home state of Minnesota following the tragic killing of George Floyd, as well as the long-term impact of COVID-19 on election infrastructure in 2020 and beyond. In the days since a video of a Minneapolis police officer killing George Floyd sparked worldwide protests, Sen. Klobuchar joined colleagues in the House and Senate to introduce comprehensive police reform legislation, the Justice in Policing Act of 2020. She has called for investigations into discriminatory policing at the Minneapolis Police Department, as well as accountability for every law enforcement officer involved in George Floyd’s death. Prior to the events of the last few weeks, Sen. Klobuchar made vote-by-mail reform a top priority in the wake of COVID-19. With no guarantee that polling places will be safe enough to allow all eligible Americans to vote in-person in November, Senator Klobuchar has emerged as the leading proponent for national mail-in voting. Her bill, The Natural Disaster and Emergency Ballot Act, establishes a new standard of voting in cases of natural disaster or infectious disease, laying a roadmap for the expansion and protection of voting rights in times of crisis. Sen. Klobuchar has served in the U.S. Senate since 2007, earning a reputation for building bipartisan consensus for a high number of bills passed into law. Her campaign for the 2020 Democratic nomination emphasized pragmatism and bipartisanship. Before she became the first woman to represent Minnesota in the U.S. Senate, Sen. Klobuchar headed the largest prosecutor’s office in Minnesota for eight years. This event is part of a new IOP series called The New Normal, which examines the long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic across several areas of American life.