Amy Klobuchar praised for debate performance in CNN focus group of Iowa voters

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) turned in strong performance at the fourth Democratic presidential debate, a group of Iowa voters tell CNN.

The network asked a panel of undecided Iowa voters who won Tuesday's debate in a segment airing Wednesday morning, and they actually seemed almost as enthusiastic about Klobuchar as they did about the frontrunner, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). With each voter being able to name more than one winner, Warren got five mentions, and Klobuchar got the same amount.

"She was intelligent," one voter said of the Minnesota senator. "She was answering questions. She wasn't dodging anything. She was sticking to being honest and clear and forthright." Another voter praised Klobuchar by saying she "was trying to also bring people together."

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Klobuchar during in the debate positioned herself as a more moderate candidate and took on Warren directly, questioning how her Medicare-for-all proposal will be paid for and saying, "The difference between a plan and a pipe dream is a plan is something that you can actually get done." Klobuchar has generally been hovering around one or two percent in national polls during the Democratic primary.

After Warren and Klobuchar, the candidate who earned the next most mentions among the Iowa voters was Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) with four, while one person mentioned South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and one person mentioned former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro.

Neither Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) nor former Vice President Joe Biden were selected as winners by any of the voters, with one person who previously selected Biden as a debate winner saying of the former vice president, "He was just a little off." Brendan Morrow