Klobuchar's closing argument in Iowa: I can win

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BETTENDORF, IA - FEBRUARY 01: Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) speaks during a campaign stop at Crawford Brew Works on February 01, 2020 in Bettendorf, Iowa. Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses will be held on February 3. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images)

DES MOINES, Iowa (FOX 9) - U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar delivered her closing argument to a mix of campaign volunteers, supporters and undecided voters Sunday on the eve of the Iowa caucuses that will play a major role in determining the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee.

Klobuchar has spent the weekend trying to catch up to her better-funded, higher-polling Democratic rivals while trying to make up for lost time because of the Senate impeachment trial. Sunday night, after a full day of campaigning, she caught a flight to Washington as the trial resumes Monday.

"You’ve got to make up for the fact that all I’ve been doing is doing my job," she told supporters who packed a barbecue restaurant in the Des Moines suburb of Johnston to watch the Super Bowl. "It has never been more stark for us, I think, to see why I’m running for this office."

Klobuchar has spent a significant amount of her campaign's resources on Iowa and has made it her central message that she can win Midwestern states that President Donald Trump carried in 2016.

Monday, she'll have to back up that talk with results. Asked on "Fox News Sunday" if she needs to finish in the top three to move on to New Hampshire, she said she'd be in New Hampshire "no matter what."

To underscore the point, her campaign later sent out a list of 15 events that Klobuchar plans to do in New Hampshire over the next eight days.

Klobuchar has been gaining momentum in the Iowa polls and said January was her best fundraising month to date. But she has never cracked 15 percent in a major statewide poll, and needs 15 percent in a caucus site to be awarded any delegates.

Her final pitch to undecided voters came in front of a few hundred people in Mason City earlier in the day. The crowd was Klobuchar's target audience: her campaign focused this weekend's campaign stops on the northern half of Iowa, closest to the Iowa border.

But the crowd was relatively quiet, only occasionally cheering and laughing during Klobuchar's 35-minute speech.

"It is not about the biggest bank account. It is not about the most famous name," she told voters. "It’s about whether we give a chance to someone that we know in our heart could lead, who we know in our heart could win."

Minnesotans have been among Klobuchar's volunteers in Iowa. Sunday, Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan joined them.

"I’m really feeling good," Walz told reporters. "The number of people who are undecided, it feels like they’re starting to break."