Moms, the 2020 election and Amy Klobuchar’s ‘Hot Dish’

Just before the disastrous Iowa caucuses, that flag-bearer of liberal elites The New York Times ran a surprising article on Amy Klobuchar, potlucks, and the Midwestern phenomenon we in the south might recognize as a casserole, “Hot Dish.” Hoo-rah! As a resident of Wilmington, I’ve been gleaning The Times for years for news analyses, perspectives, and recipes I don’t necessarily find in my neighborhood. And as a working mom raising kids in hurricane alley for the past twenty years, I try to balance what a lot of us do—feed my kids’ bellies and minds with nutritious fare, so they can grow up strong, healthy, and smart—take my day job responsibilities seriously—and not go insane while doing so. As a feminist who gets to vote in Super Tuesday, I’ve been following Amy’s rise with curiosity. Could she, this woman who claims maternal multi-tasking as a presidential qualification, be the first to win the White House? And what does Hot Dish have to do with it?

I vowed to find out, especially after my kids saw the recipe for and begged me to make it. How could I say no?

We headed to the market and picked out the usual produce for their lunches, greens, and veggies for dinner—after all, my daughter is interested in eating more plants, and as a good mom, in the years when my kids went to bed before I did, I had read and internalized the lessons of Fast Food Nation, The Botany of Desire, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. But then I got stuck. In the middle of Food Lion. Amy told us we needed cream of mushroom soup, cream of chicken soup, and frozen tater tots. We were momentarily stunned. After all, Michelle Obama followed Schlosser, Pollan, and Kingsolver in advocating fresh fruit and veggies for all kids, not just her own. What kind of a mom was Amy? What was she advocating for America?

“Do it,” Maisie pleaded with me (not silently). Questioning my sanity and ethics—where did this meat come from and lost in the frozen potato aisle—they had their own aisle!—I bowed to my daughter’s wishes. After all, I want to be the kind of mom kids like—not judgy, mean-spirited, or stingy, but generous, patient, and sweet. I bought the canned soup. And the frozen tater tots.

We chopped the onion (one fresh vegetable), browned the beef, sprinkled the cheese, arranged the tater tots—because we knew that good parents are involved parents, they spend time with their kids, talking with, listening to, and obliging them. And then we put the whole mess in the oven.

My kids loved it. And while I didn’t talk to them about the politics of the dish, I do wonder if this is a stroke of brilliance on Klobuchar’s part—a way she can claim to cook the kind of cheap, salty, fatty food that most recipes in (and perhaps readers of) The Times decry—if Donald Trump eats McDonalds, she can prep it—or if this is sign of how much work women have to do to build bridges today. A woman presidential candidate cannot be too progressive but needs to be comforting, recalling Betty Crocker from the 1950s rather than Alice Waters of the 1970s. We have yet to see what Klobuchar can do or how effective her strategy is.

Two days after the recipe ran, J. Lo showed us what 50 could look like at the Super Bowl halftime show. At such a moment, we might ask, is capitalizing on nostalgia the way for the first woman to successfully reach the White House?

This story was originally published February 22, 2020 at 9:01 AM.