Amy Klobuchar

Amy Klobuchar was born in 1960 and is currently serving as the senior United States Senator from Minnesota. Senator Klobuchar was reelected in the U.S. Senate in 2018 and her seat will be up for election again in 2024. She ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for U.S. President in 2020.

Klobuchar was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006. A member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, an affiliate of the U.S. Democratic Party, she is Minnesota’s first elected female U.S. Senator. Klobuchar previously served as the county attorney for Hennepin County, Minnesota’s most populous county. Senator Klobuchar is the Chair of the Senate Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee, which fosters dialogue between the Senate Democrats and community leaders across the country.

Senator Klobuchar is currently the Ranking Member on the Rules and Administration Committee. She also serves on the Judiciary Committee; the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee; the Joint Economic Committee; and the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee.

Below is Senator Klobuchar’s voting record and public positions on issues important to the Jewish community.

In July 2019, Senator Klobuchar added her name to the list of cosponsors of Senate Resolution 120, which opposes the delegitimization of Israel and the global BDS movement.

In July 2019, Senator Klobuchar said she will keep the US embassy in Jerusalem should she be elected President: “I think (moving the embassy to Jerusalem) would have been better if that was done as part of a negotiation for a two-state solution. I think it’s unfortunate it was done the way it was done but I wouldn’t reverse it.”

Senator Klobuchar supported the Iran nuclear deal, arguing that the deal helped curb Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon. During the campaign she has declared that she would reenter the deal of Iran abides by it and she reiterated her support for reentering the agreement in the first Democratic debate on June 26. She argued that the deal “was imperfect, but it was a good deal for that moment” and that she “would have worked to get longer sunset periods, and that’s something we can negotiate to get back in the deal.”

Senator Klobuchar supports the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and believes that the right of return to Israel for Palestinians should be decided during direct negotiations between the two parties. She opposes the discriminatory Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement that targets Israel as she believes it harms the two-state solution. She supported legislation that objected to UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which claimed that Israel’s settlements have no legal validity.

In 2018, Senator Klobuchar cosponsored the United States-Israel Security Assistance Authorization Act , a legislation that supported full funding of security assistance to Israel as outlined in the 2016 U.S.-Israel Memorandum of Understanding. Senator Klobuchar has stated that the U.S. should maintain its current level of security aid to Israel. In October 2019, when discussing aid to Israel and the possiblity that was raised by a few candidates to make it conditional, Senator Klobuchar stated that she is “so wedded right now to make sure we are actually continuing the aid.”

In 2019, Senator Klobuchar voted for the Strengthening America’s Middle East Security Act which, among other things strengthens Israel’s security, and allows a state or local government to adopt measures to divest its assets from entities that boycott Israel.

Following the November 2019 announcement of President Trump’s administration that it would no longer view Israeli settlements as “inconsistent with international law”, Senator Klobuchar argued that “the Trump administration’s announcement on Israeli settlements goes against long-standing U.S. policy” and that “once again Donald Trump is playing politics and taking us further away from a path to a two-state solution.”