Democratic Incumbent Amy Klobuchar won the U.S. Senate race in Minnesota, securing her second term as a Minnesota senator and defeating four candidates in the process.

Klobuchar told the party faithful at DFL headquarters that her campaign won this election the right way.

“We worked hard. We were positive and optimistic about the future of Minnesota, and we won because we’re forward looking. As Minnesotans we do not vote our fears; we vote our hopes,” Klobuchar said.

The Associated Press declared Klobuchar the winner shortly after Minnesota’s poll closed at 8 p.m. Six years ago, Klobuchar became the first woman elected to represent Minnesota in the U.S. Senate.

In Ward 4, Precinct 6, the polling place for St. Thomas students living on North Campus or located north of Summit Avenue, Klobuchar won 58.1 percent of the vote with 1,157 votes. In Ward 4, Precinct 7, Klobuchar captured 69.36 percent of the vote with 1,270 votes. Precinct 7 was were where students living on South Campus or south of Summit Avenue voted.

Junior Alex Kopel said she wasn’t worried about Klobuchar’s race.

“It was so great that she had such a comfortable lead…,” Kopel said. “It’s really great to have such strong leaders coming out of our state, especially Democratic women.”

U.S. Senator Al Franken said no one works harder to solve problems than Klobuchar.

“Not only is she a problem-solver, she’s a problem anticipator. Sometimes, because she’s a problem anticipator, we don’t have any problems because she solved them beforehand.” Franken said.

Klobuchar, who grew up in Minnesota, was a heavy favorite over Republican candidate Kurt Bills, who largely struggled for money and voter support throughout the election.

“I’m so thankful for the people who literally quit their jobs to come on board and campaign against probably one of the toughest senators in the United States to beat,” Bills said.

Prior to serving in the U.S. Senate, Klobuchar was the Hennepin County Attorney for eight years and later elected president of the Minnesota County Attorneys Association.

Bills, a Rosemount High School economics teacher and a one-time state legislator, gained the party’s endorsement in May. Bills was backed by supporters of Texas congressman Ron Paul and from the start, struggled to gain backing from traditional GOP donors; some of whom were won over by Klobuchar’s moves toward the middle and others who disliked the candidate’s connections to Paul.

Bills said he tried to gear his campaign toward college-aged voters.

“There’s just so much energy,” Bills said. “Young people have started over 326 (Young Americans for Liberty) organizations across the country. Young Americans are seeing the way forward and that is not debt and dependency. It’s more liberty.”

Junior Anne George said she thought Bills’ plan to target college students was crucial to his campaign despite his lost.

“You need to target college students. We go to school in the Twin Cities which is definitely a more liberal area, so I think that was very much expected even St. Thomas being more conservative,” George said.

Funding also played a role in this year’s senate race. By mid-September Klobuchar’s campaign had nearly $5 million while Bills only had about $5,000.

Briggs LeSavage can be reached at lesa4364@stthomas.edu.