U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota went from rival to campaign surrogate Friday, reaching out to two key voting constituencies — women and organized labor — on behalf of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

"He is the candidate that can stand in workers' shoes, so that's why he's the best person for labor," Klobuchar said in an interview with the Detroit Free Press after touring MGM Grand casino with union workers. "I think about how the vice president stood up for the auto industry in a big way here."

She also noted the benefits packages negotiated by labor unions in Michigan and how those could be lost under U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders' Medicare for All plan.

"A lot of our unions actually are not for Medicare for All because they get that you don't want to bargain hard for these private health insurance plans and then their workers kicked off of it in four years," Klobuchar said.

Klobuchar came to Michigan ahead of the state's primary on Tuesday.

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In Southfield, she told a group of supporters that, while it was hard to end her campaign, "I cannot think of a better way to end it than joining Joe Biden.”

Klobuchar talked kitchen-table issues with the suburban crowd, saying that Biden is the perfect candidate to handle the COVID-19 outbreak because of his experience handling Ebola. The reference was to an outbreak of the deadly disease in west Africa in 2014-15, when the United States responded by sending $6.4 billion in federal aid to the country.

And referring to families struggling to pay for college or pharmaceuticals, she said, "Joe Biden knows you.”

Klobuchar dropped out of the Democratic presidential race after last Saturday's primary election in South Carolina, which Biden won decisively, and threw her support behind Biden the day before the Super Tuesday contests. That endorsement helped the former vice president win Klobuchar's home state on Tuesday.

Klobuchar used her Midwestern roots and sensibility as a way to connect with voters throughout her presidential bid, noting that Democrats needed to regain the upper hand in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, the three states that turned from blue to red in 2016 and helped deliver Donald Trump to the White House.

She said suburban and rural voters led to Biden’s victory in other states and that Michigan could pull off "another Minnesota surprise" with a coalition of African Americans, moderates, Republicans and Independents.

"One of the things that's most interesting here is Minnesota and Michigan had both gone to Sen. Sanders in 2016. And in Minnesota, I think no one predicted this, but Biden won in a big way in my state," she said. "And you see the same thing happening right now in the polls in Michigan — two Midwestern 'M' states, Minnesota and Michigan, that Biden can win."

The suburban women she met in Southfield are expected to be an essential voting block in the 2020 election cycle.

Southfield resident Sharon Person had already voted for Biden because she felt he's the most electable Democrat in the field.

"He's most likely able to beat what's currently in the White House," she said.

The Oakland County-based group Fems for Dems, which formed after the 2016 elections and helped elect Democratic women to office up and down the ballot in 2018, flipping several seats from the GOP to Democrats, hosted the Southfield event Friday evening.

“Fems for Dems may have wanted a woman candidate. I definitely think a woman can be president and a good one, but I don’t think America is ready for a woman president or a gay president," Person said. "Everyone I talk to says they want to restore normalcy, and I feel like Biden will bring that normalcy back to the White House."

Lake Orion resident Dave Gebard, 72, said he was rooting for Klobuchar for president and now wants her to be Biden's running mate.

"She’s a strong woman and a strong candidate with lots of experience and understanding," he said. "She's from the Midwest and knows Midwest issues, but no matter where she’s from, I still would have wanted her to be president.“

Gebard voted early for Klobuchar, but is spoiling his absentee ballot in order to vote for Biden, he said.

Klobuchar was one of six women running for president in 2020.The others were U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kamala Harris of California and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii and California author Marianne Williamson. All have dropped out except for Gabbard, who is trailing.

“I think that having so many women up there on that stage, it was groundbreaking on its own," Klobuchar said of last summer's debates. "Literally, the first night of the debate in the primary, we doubled the number of women who had ever run for president.”

Biden will be in Michigan on Monday with campaign stops in Grand Rapids and Detroit.

Contact Kathleen Gray: 313-223-4430, kgray99@freepress.com or on Twitter @michpoligal.