Amy Klobuchar visits VINE in Mankato

MANKATO, Minn. (KEYC) -An opportunity to meet and share concerns, Senator Amy Klobuchar (D - Minnesota) paid a visit to VINE Faith in Action in Mankato Thursday.

The visit is a part of Klobuchar’s ongoing tour of 19 southern Minnesota counties.

VINE often hosts legislators looking to make contact with the local community, and is often a crucial access point to what hosts said is one of the most politically active demographics.

“Our older adult population that comes to VINE on a regular basis really is engaged politically and they want to have these opportunities to talk to their legislators and learn more and understand more about the decisions being made at the state and federal levels,” said VINE CEO Melinda Wedzina.

Topics of the meeting included proposed cuts to federal programs like Medicaid, which Klobuchar said she opposes, citing half of all residents in assisted living facilities rely on Medicaid support.

Much of the meeting was also Q&A and Meet & Greet, and Klobuchar touched on topics around the Trump Administration, tariffs and the recent surge of detainments and deportations by ICE.

“We just have such an active senior community in Minnesota, I think that we have things that we’ve done right and there are things that we can learn from nationally about what we’ve done and then there’s policy issues that obviously are going on right now, that’s the understatement of the year,” Klobuchar said.

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