Amy Klobuchar in Interviews during 2018-2020

On Budget & Economy: Focus on issues affecting small business, rural America

This is a political movement that started here, and it was a movement that said small farms matter, small businesses matter, entrepreneurship matters, that's the engine, this is why our Founding Fathers moved from England, because they didn't want to be controlled by monopolies and the East India Company, and when they did they got really mad and threw the tea into the water. Heartland economics is a focus on rural economics, which is very different in terms of critical access to hospitals, broadband, and making sure that [rural Americans] can have a piece of the action.

On Immigration: Immigrants crucial to labor & management

On Civil Rights: Paper ballots allow audits, ensure election integrity

On Health Care: For public option, taking on Big Pharma

On Tax Reform: Changes in corporate tax would fund infrastructure

A: Infrastructure is an economic need. I have the funding, I've shown how I can get this plan done, and as president I will get it done.

Q: You want to raise the corporate tax rate, which the Republicans just cut. That might be a heavy lift.

A: Look at what they did, they went down to 21 percent and every point if even to put it at 25 percent, which is a significant decrease from where it was, we would bring in $400 billion to pay for roads and bridges and levies and schools. That's a lot of money. Or how about the way they did the overseas income where they took an average rate instead of assessing it for each country. If we went back to each country, $150 billion in savings.

On Government Reform: Automatically register citizens to vote when they turn 18

Her big idea: She offered a number of proposals during her time on stage [at the SXSW conference]--bringing broadband to rural areas, lowering prescription drug prices and some kind of transactional tax on technology companies that sell information about their users. When I asked her to name her top idea, she opted for one she hadn't mentioned--passing a law automatically registering all citizens to vote when they turn 18.

Her biggest obstacle: Raising the massive amount of money to fund a presidential campaign was her biggest obstacle, she told me. Allegations that she has been verbally abusive towards her Senate staff have dogged the early days of her campaign, however.

On Education: I am not for free four-year college for all

On free four-year college, Klobuchar said: "No, I am not for four-year college for all."

"If I was a magic genie, and could give that for everyone, and we could afford it, I would," Klobuchar said, in response to a student's question on free four-year college. "I've got to tell the truth."

Instead, Klobuchar said that she would support easing restrictions on refinancing student loans, as well as expanding Pell Grants program.

On Energy & Oil: Green New Deal is aspirational; don't over-promise

On climate change, Klobuchar said she believes that "we can get close" to the Green New Deal, but that she doesn't "think we're going to get rid of entire industries in the U.S."

"We need to get this debate going, and this is put out there as an aspiration in that something we need to move toward," she said. "Do I think we can cross every 'T' and dot every 'I' in 10 years? Actually, I think that would be very difficult to do."

She also looked ahead to the potential legislation, acknowledging that "there are going to be compromises" and "it's not going to look exactly like that," she said.

On Health Care: Medicare-for-all is aspirational and for the future, not now

Klobuchar's centrist positions puts her largely in a category alone, as many of her Democratic opponents have opted to fully embrace Medicare-for-all and the Green New Deal. But she may soon be joined in that group by other moderate candidates, such as Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown.

On health care, Klobuchar said she wanted to "build on" the Affordable Care Act, highlighting her support for a public option, rather than calling for an immediate transition to Medicare-for-all. "It could be a possibility in the future," she said, "but I'm looking for what's working now."

On Principles & Values: Minnesota Nice: reliable, calm, aw-shucks bipartisanship

As Democrats look ahead to 2020, do they need a calm, reasoned, reliable (but not flashy) Democrat from the American heartland to provide a stark contrast to the president--in short, Amy Klobuchar?

"I don't agree with, 'When they go low, we go low,' but I do agree that when they go low, we have to respond," Klobuchar said, referring to the intraparty debate over Michelle Obama's 2016 mantra: "When they go low, we go high."

"But," she went on, "responding doesn't mean just going down a rabbit hole everywhere Donald Trump goes. I don't think we want to tweet caustic comments every morning."

On Principles & Values: Nicknamed "The Senator of Small Things," but some are big

Early in her tenure, she carved out a niche in consumer protection, shepherding passage of bipartisan bills to ban lead in toys and improve swimming pool safety after several highly publicized child deaths, measures that Republican strategists in Minnesota said have earned Ms. Klobuchar a derisive nickname: "The Senator of Small Things."

Ms. Klobuchar has heard the "small things" criticism, and resents it. "Not for a minute do I view these as small things," she said sharply. "They're big things for the people whose kids' lives were saved."