She won all three of her Senate campaigns in Minnesota by more than 20 percentage points. Trump, by comparison, lost the state by only 1.5 points in 2016. Klobuchar did it by winning suburbs that normally lean right and holding her own in many rural areas.

Her strategy isn’t exactly a secret. It is the same one that many congressional Democrats used in 2018, and not so different from Barack Obama’s approach to his 2012 re-election. She emphasizes the pocketbook issues on which Democrats hold a huge advantage over Republicans. She doesn’t make voters anxious by promising utopian dreams, like a mandatory version of Medicare that would ban private insurance. She promises to reduce the cost of medical care — and points out that Republicans will raise those costs.

Klobuchar also finds ways to demonstrate her respect to voters who disagree with her on many issues. She describes Minnesota as “a proud hunting state” and visits each of its 87 counties every year. She doesn’t take unpopular positions on immigration, like border decriminalization.

And yet Klobuchar is hardly a centrist. She wants to raise taxes on the rich, break up monopolies, vastly expand Medicare, fight climate change, admit more refugees, allow undocumented immigrants to become citizens, ban assault weapons and require universal background checks. A Klobuchar administration would probably be well to the left of the Obama administration.