Is Amy Klobuchar running for president? Her visit to New Hampshire could provide clues.

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar is heading back to New Hampshire, the state that gave her a short-lived boost in the 2020 presidential race as the “comeback kid.”

While the Democrat hasn’t said if she will run for president in 2028, operatives, strategists and those who know Klobuchar well say she wouldn’t be going if she didn’t have higher political ambitions.

“I’m sure that people, out of the goodness of their heart, would be willing to sacrifice Father’s Day weekend to come hang out with the lovely people of New Hampshire,” the state’s Democratic Party chairman, Raymond Buckley, said facetiously when asked whether her trip could signal interest in a presidential run.

Klobuchar will visit Manchester, New Hampshire’s most populous city, on Saturday and speak at the local Democratic Party’s Flag Dinner. She also will campaign with U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas, the city’s congressman who’s running for U.S. Senate.

Klobuchar declined an interview for this report, reiterating that she’s going to New Hampshire to campaign for Pappas when asked if she’s interested in running for president. She also hasn’t outright dismissed interest in moving up in Senate leadership. Calls for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to step aside have intensified this year and the second-ranking senator is retiring.

“If you’re a U.S. senator and you’re in New Hampshire this early in a cycle, I think it’s pretty intuitive that you’re not just here out of pure altruism, and that there is some inherent political benefit to you doing this for yourself,” said Lucas Meyer, a New Hampshire-based Democratic strategist who previously managed Pappas’ congressional campaign.

Klobuchar’s visit comes as Democrats wrestle over who will lead the party going forward. There’s more than two and a half years before the first presidential primary, but potential Democratic contenders have been keeping their profiles high as they mull the option. That includes Gov. Tim Walz, a fellow Minnesotan who recently appeared in South Carolina, another crucial early primary state.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, also considered a possible presidential candidate, headlined a state party dinner in New Hampshire earlier this year. California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna traveled to the state recently.

Klobuchar is the first senator to campaign for Pappas, the New Hampshire congressman said. He hopes her visit is a signal that she’s interested in running again in 2028.

“She’s a leader of national importance that folks want to hear more from, so whatever direction that takes, people will be happy to invite her back into their living rooms and their coffee shops,” Pappas added.

At the end of her 2020 campaign, Klobuchar said one of her biggest regrets was that she didn’t set up a network of supporters earlier in different states. Her visit could indicate she’s laying the groundwork to course-correct and reconnect with voters in a state she surged in early in 2020. Klobuchar placed third in New Hampshire, then faltered in South Carolina and Nevada before suspending her campaign.

“If the primary had been just a week later, she would have won New Hampshire,” Buckley said. “Her debate performance the Friday before the primary really knocked the socks off from the voters.”

She also could be starting to build support in the Senate should she decide to run for leadership there, strategists say.

Klobuchar noticeably veered from the rest of Senate leadership in March when she opposed the continuing spending resolution and effectively voted to shut down government. The vote shielded her from her party’s left flank, which has since been calling for Schumer to step down from leadership.

“This is very much a two-for,” said Democratic strategist Rodell Mollineau, who previously worked for longtime Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. “Senator Klobuchar gets to help a potential Senate colleague that can be a future ally should she need another vote to move up in the ranks. At the same point in time, reintroducing herself to crucial voters in an important Democratic presidential primary state.”

Known as a centrist, Klobuchar has been able to win in parts of greater Minnesota and red districts across the state. She dramatically outperformed the top of the ticket last year, though she did not fare as well in rural Minnesota as in the past.

Klobuchar presided over Trump’s inauguration when she could have protested going, and she’s one of the only lawmakers to get Trump’s signature on a bill during his second term. But she’s also been critical of Trump, blasting him in speeches for overreach.

Centrism may not work for everyone, said Republican strategist and Minnesota native Alex Conant, who’s worked on several presidential campaigns, including former Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s bid in 2011.

“I think she’s like a lot of Midwestern politicians who try to appeal to both camps,” Conant said. “Unfortunately, politicians that try to appeal to everyone normally end up not being anyone’s favorite.”

Reaching progressives and voters of color could also be difficult if she runs for president. Her 2020 campaign came to a tumultuous end within a day after her homecoming event in St. Paul was shut down by protesters. They called on her to end her bid given her past handling of the case against Myon Burrell, a Black teenager convicted in a 2002 child murder and sentenced to life during Klobuchar’s tenure as Hennepin County attorney.

Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights attorney and former head of the Minneapolis NAACP, thinks the Burrell case and others during Klobuchar’s Hennepin County attorney tenure will be scrutinized again if she runs for president.

“I think that if Amy Klobuchar runs for president in 2028 she’s going to have many of the same problems that she encountered in 2020 regarding her overall lack of connection to the Black community and other communities of color,” Levy Armstrong said.

Though she had a strong showing in New Hampshire and Iowa, states with predominantly white populations, Klobuchar finished sixth in Nevada and South Carolina, states with higher numbers of Black and Latino voters.

A former staffer on her 2020 presidential campaign, who asked to remain anonymous to speak freely about the past race, said the campaign’s focus on New Hampshire and Iowa left Klobuchar with too little time to introduce herself to voters in South Carolina and Nevada.

The next big question is whether she will head to Nevada or South Carolina, the staffer said.