在超级星期二的前两天，全国有色人种协进会明尼阿波利斯分会和黑人生活问题活动人士抗议明尼苏达州参议员艾米·克洛布查尔的集会，抗议她涉嫌谋杀一名黑人青少年。克洛布加勒斯特取消了集会。第二天，由于无法在全国范围内获得足够的支持，她结束了总统竞选，看了看达拉斯的电视摄像机，并告诉她的家乡明尼苏达州支持前副总统乔·拜登。
现在，拜登正式批准她成为他的副总统竞选伙伴。这不太受少数选民的欢迎。包括移民活动人士在内的有色人种团体和领导人表示，选择克罗布加勒斯特将意味着拜登将有色人种选民视为理所当然——在黑人选民重启他的竞选活动之后——优先考虑中西部温和的白人选民。
“她将是一个鲁莽的选择，”艾米·艾利森说，她的组织“她人民”去年在历史悠久的黑人德克萨斯南方大学举办了一个总统论坛，克洛布查尔参加了该论坛。“我们需要有色人种的女性对候选人感到兴奋，但她不能抓住我们的希望和梦想。”
全国家政工人联盟的政治主任杰西卡·莫拉莱斯·罗基特托说，这位明尼苏达州参议员没有能力满足拜登的需求。“认为艾米·克洛布查尔可以表达反特朗普的观点，以及是什么激发了他的基础，如移民、种族主义或仇外心理，这显然是可笑的。”
克洛布查尔的竞选代表拒绝回应新闻周刊征求意见。
进步团体正在私下考虑发布一封信，表明他们坚信克罗布加勒斯特不应该竞选副总统一职，新闻周刊已经学会了。在初选期间，她与有色人种选民斗争，获得了3%的黑人选民和6%的内华达州拉丁裔选民的支持，只有1%的南卡罗来纳州黑人选民的支持。然而，拉丁裔决策公司发现，选择像内华达州参议员凯瑟琳·科尔特斯-梅斯特这样的拉丁裔副总统候选人会使72%的西班牙裔更有可能投票给拜登。在他们的焦点小组中，拉美裔决策人发现拉美裔想要一个代表民主党承认其多样性的人。
除了警察枪击案之外，克洛布查尔作为检察官寻求重判的指控一直伴随着她在黑人社区，他们觉得她有白人警察的支持，但不是他们的。
明尼苏达州民权律师奈基马·利维·阿姆斯特朗反对克劳巴克，他告诉记者新闻周刊“鉴于她在明尼苏达州亨内平县刑事司法系统中有色人种比例过高”以及“未能追究执法官员在她担任检察官期间枪杀非洲裔美国人的责任”，她对自己作为副总统的身份“持严重保留意见”
2002年，克罗布查起诉了一个案件，该案件导致明尼苏达州少年米恩·伯勒尔因一个名叫泰莎·爱德华兹的11岁黑人女孩的死亡而被终身监禁。但是长达一年的美联社调查发现，该案件中存在重大的不一致之处，包括没有枪、DNA或指纹。2020年3月，克罗布加勒斯特在与伯勒尔的家人会面后，要求对该案进行独立调查。伯勒尔的家人得到了全国有色人种协进会主席德里克·约翰逊和明尼阿波利斯全国有色人种协进会主席莱斯利·雷德蒙的支持。
在移民问题上，活动人士认为，在2018年的停工斗争中，克罗布查是一群温和派民主党人中的一员，他们并不支持克罗布查。2000年，一名法官在Klobuchar担任检察官期间审理了一起福利欺诈案，判处一名无证移民364天徒刑，这样他就不会被驱逐出境。克洛布查尔的办公室转而游说延期两天，这名男子离开了该国。
“她的历史记录告诉我们，她绝对没有成为移民的冠军，”联合我们梦想的执行董事克里斯蒂娜·希门尼斯说，她去年曾非正式地为拜登的移民运动提供建议。
还有失态。当泰伦多问及墨西哥总统时，她说不出他的名字，这向一些人暗示，在谈到美国的主要贸易伙伴时，她缺乏严肃性。当她告诉内华达州的大多数拉丁裔、移民和女性有影响力的烹饪联盟，她在西班牙语课上的昵称是埃琳娜时，她试图团结一致的行为也招致了批评，许多人认为这是在迎合。
她自己竞选团队的前成员承认，他们的前老板很难吸引有色人种选民，称这是一个“弱点”和“盲点”
“我非常喜欢艾米，但我们在竞选期间没有搞清楚，他们现在显然也没有搞清楚，”一名前竞选团队成员说，他匿名发表讲话，对克洛布查尔进行了坦率的评价。
但与克罗布查共事的其他人对她未能与有色人种选民就影响他们的因素进行接触的观点提出了质疑，他们的盟友指出，她在竞选期间与黑人选民举行了33次竞选活动，并举行了17次以拉美裔和移民为重点的活动。
拉丁美洲之音主席玛丽亚·特里萨·库马尔(Maria Teresa Kumar)指出，克罗布加勒斯特主持参议院民主指导委员会和拉丁美洲峰会，与拉丁美洲领导人会面。拉丁美洲之音还通过邮件立法帮助收集了19个团体的签名，用于克洛布查尔的全国投票，其中包括“为我们的生活而游行”和米歇尔·奥巴马的组织“当我们都投票”等团体。
“对黑人和布朗社区来说，有一件事很能说明问题，那就是她对选举改革的热情和承诺，”玛丽娜·内格罗蓬特说，她是克罗布查竞选活动的内华达州主管。
克洛布查尔还支持参议院2013年的移民法案，其中包括《梦想法案》，并在2015年投票反对拆除避难城市。她还反对特朗普终止奥巴马时代的执行行动——推迟儿童移民行动(DACA)。
她的支持者重复了克洛布查尔的一个论点，那就是她是选举的赢家。她拥有真正的中西部吸引力，这将有助于支持宾夕法尼亚、威斯康星和密歇根偏向特朗普的选民。但在那里，黑人和拉丁裔领导人也表示，如果没有费城、密尔沃基和底特律有色人种选民的支持，拜登不会赢得这些州。
来自底特律的民主党全国委员会黑人核心小组主席维吉尔·罗林斯对这些担忧不屑一顾。她说她作为参议员认识克罗布加勒斯特，密歇根州的妇女，包括黑人妇女，都喜欢她。
“如果有人是个白痴，会因为副总统人选而决定反对拜登，那么当白宫里的那个人是个危险人物时，我们将会有另一个希拉里·克林顿，”她说新闻周刊。
尽管如此，接受《新闻周刊》采访的大多数黑人和棕色人种领袖表示，如果不激励有色人种选民，就不会有胜利，他们认为民主党人反复强调这些社区很重要。但是在竞选中做出的最大决定上——主要的金融投资和谁是副总统——他们被认为不够优先。
民主党捐助者史蒂夫·菲利普斯说:“当拜登宣布他将选择一名女性作为副总统和一名黑人女性作为最高法院法官时，我感到非常值得注意。”。“办公室那更投机，那可能发生，也可能不发生，他会具体说是某个黑人干的。但我们知道他对办公室拥有完全的控制权，他不会向有色人种承诺。”
2020年3月2日，民主党总统候选人、前副总统乔·拜登在德克萨斯州达拉斯的一场竞选活动中与参议员艾米·克洛布查尔一同登台。在即将到来的超级星期二民主党总统初选之前，克洛布加勒斯特暂停了她的竞选活动，支持拜登。
Black and Latino Groups and Leaders Want Anyone but Amy Klobuchar for Biden's Vice President
Two days before Super Tuesday, NAACP Minneapolis and Black Lives Matter activists protested Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar's rally before it began over her involvement with the murder conviction of a black teen. Klobuchar canceled the rally. The next day, unable to curry enough support nationwide, she ended her campaign for president, looked into a television camera from Dallas, and told her home state of Minnesota to support former Vice President Joe Biden.
Now Biden is formally vetting her to be his vice-presidential running mate. That doesn't sit well with minority voters. According to groups and leaders of color, including immigration activists, the selection of Klobuchar would mean Biden is taking voters of color for granted—after black voters resurrected his campaign—to prioritize Midwestern moderate white voters.
"She would be a reckless choice" said Aimee Allison, whose group She The People held a presidential forum last year at historically black Texas Southern University that Klobuchar attended. "We need women of color to be excited about a candidate and she doesn't capture our hopes and dreams."
Jessica Morales Rocketto, political director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, said the Minnesota senator is incapable of providing what Biden needs. "The idea that Amy Klobuchar could speak to an anti-Trump vision, and what motivates his base like immigration, racism, or xenophobia is patently laughable."
Klobuchar's campaign representatives declined to respond to Newsweek's request for comment.
Progressive groups are privately mulling releasing a letter making it clear their firm belief that Klobuchar should not be in the running for the vice-presidential role, Newsweek has learned. During the primary, she struggled with voters of color, receiving 3 percent from black voters and 6 percent from Latino voters in Nevada, and only 1 percent support from black voters in South Carolina. Polling firm Latino Decisions found, however, that choosing a Latina VP nominee like Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez-Masto would make Hispanics 72 percent more likely to vote for Biden. In their focus groups, Latino Decisions found that Hispanics want someone who represents an acknowledgment from the Democratic Party that it is diverse.
Accusations that Klobuchar sought stiff sentences as a prosecutor—except in the case of police shootings—have followed her within the black community, who feel she had the backs of white cops, but not theirs.
Nekima Levy Armstrong, a Minnesota civil rights attorney, who protested Klobuchar, told Newsweek she has "serious reservations" about her as vice president "given her role in the overrepresentation of people of color in our criminal justice system in Hennepin county in Minnesota" and "failure to hold law enforcement officials accountable for shooting and killing African-Americans during her time as prosecutor."
In 2002, Klobuchar prosecuted the case that put Minnesota teen Myon Burrell behind bars for life in the death of an 11-year-old black girl named Tyesha Edwards. But a year-long Associated Press investigation found major inconsistencies in the case that included no gun, DNA or fingerprints. Klobuchar asked for an independent investigation into the case in March 2020 after meeting with Burrell's family, which was supported by NAACP national president Derrick Johnson and Leslie Redmond, president of NAACP Minneapolis.
On immigration, activists feel Klobuchar was among a group of moderate Democrats that wasn't there for them during the 2018 shutdown fight. And in 2000, a judge in a welfare fraud case during Klobuchar's time as prosecutor, gave a 364-day sentence to an undocumented immigrant so he wouldn't be deported. Klobuchar's office instead lobbied for a two-day extension and the man left the country.
"Her track record tells us she's definitely missed the mark in being a champion for immigrants," said Cristina Jimenez, executive director of United We Dream, who informally advised Biden's campaign on immigration last year.
And then there are the gaffes. She couldn't name the Mexican president when Telemundo asked, suggesting to some a lack of seriousness when it comes to the United States top trading partner. Klobuchar also drew criticism for an attempt at solidarity that many perceived as pandering when she told the majority Latino, immigrant and women-influential Culinary Union in Nevada that her nickname in Spanish class was Elena.
Former members of her own campaign staff acknowledged their former boss had trouble appealing to voters of color, calling it a "weakness" and a "blind spot."
"I very much like Amy but we didn't figure it out during the campaign and they clearly haven't figured it out now," one ex-campaign staffer said, who spoke anonymously to offer a frank assessment of Klobuchar.
But others who worked with Klobuchar disputed the idea that she has not been able to engage with voters of color about what impacts them, with allies pointing to 33 campaign events she held with black voters during the campaign and 17 Latino and immigration-focused events.
Maria Teresa Kumar, president of Voto Latino, pointed out that Klobuchar chairs the Senate Democratic Steering Committee and the Latino Summit, which meet with Latino leaders. Voto Latino also helped gather signatures from 19 groups for Klobuchar's national vote by mail legislation, which included groups like March For Our Lives, and Michelle Obama's organization, When We All Vote.
"One thing that speaks strongly to black and brown communities is her enthusiasm and commitment to election reform," said Marina Negroponte, who was Nevada state director for Klobuchar's campaign.
Klobuchar also supported the Senate's 2013 immigration bill, which included the DREAM Act, and voted against defunding sanctuary cities in 2015. She also opposed Trump ending Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), an Obama-era executive action.
One argument for Klobuchar, repeated by her supporters, is that she's an electoral winner. That she has real Midwest appeal would help with voters who tilted Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan in Trump's favor. But there, too, black and Latino leaders said Biden isn't winning those states without the support of voters of color in Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Detroit.
Virgie Rollins, chair of the Democratic National Committee's black caucus, who is from Detroit, dismissed those concerns. She said she knows Klobuchar as a senator, and women in Michigan, including black women, love her.
"If anybody is an idiot that would decide against Biden because of who the VP pick is, we're going to have another Hillary Clinton when that man in the White House is a danger," she told Newsweek.
Still, the majority of black and brown leaders who spoke with Newsweek said there is no winning without energizing voters of color and argued Democrats repeatedly say these communities matter. But on the biggest decisions a campaign makes—on major financial investment and who is vice president—they're not deemed enough of a priority.
"It was quite notable to me when Biden announced he was going to choose a woman as vice president and a black woman for Supreme Court," Democratic donor Steve Phillips said. "The office that is more speculative, that may or may not happen, he'll be specific that it's somebody black. But the office we know he has full control over, he won't commit to a person of color."
Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden is joined on stage by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) during a campaign event on March 2, 2020 in Dallas, Texas. Klobuchar suspended her campaign and endorsed Biden before the upcoming Super Tuesday Democratic presidential primaries.
