(CNN) Sen. Amy Klobuchar welcomed Beto O'Rourke to the 2020 presidential race on Thursday, telling CNN's Poppy Harlow in an interview that she believes more competition in the Democratic primary is good for the party and that she isn't worried about the former congressman's fundraising prowess.

O'Rourke's long awaited entrance makes the Texas Democrat who lost his Senate race to Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018 the wild card in the 2020 presidential race, injecting a largely unknown quantity into an already large -- and growing -- field of Democratic candidates.

Klobuchar, asked about O'Rourke on Thursday, let out a hearty, "Welcome!"

"I think that competition is good in our party," the senator from Minnesota said, telling Harlow that former President Barack Obama has been telling 2020 candidates that he believes the more the merrier in the nomination fight.

"Having a number of strong candidates in an election and in a race is important, and then the voters are going to be able to evaluate it," she said. "And, of course, he's someone that comes, like I do, from the center of the country. I think it's important to have people that are running from different parts of the country."

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