In 2010 a devastating earthquake hit Haiti. With 160,000 dead, the country was in chaos. Somewhere in the rubble were dozens of orphans set to be adopted by families in my state. Records were destroyed, protocols abandoned. Yet distraught Minnesota moms were on the ground, looking for their children.

When they called me, I called the only person I knew would help: then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She didn’t pawn it off or think it too small. She went to work. She got those babies home, and a few were even brought to the Port-au-Prince airport in a State Department car, diapers, bottles and all.

That’s the Hillary I know—the friend who takes the call, the public servant who listens and acts, the mom who makes sure it gets done right. She has a spine of steel and a work ethic to match America’s.

Those kids from Haiti may never know that she changed their lives forever, but she did. That’s a leader.

Klobuchar is a Democratic Senator from Minnesota

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