Kirsten Gillibrand Launches 2020 Presidential Exploratory CommitteeThe New York senator is the latest high-profile Democrat to confirm that she is seriously considering a bid to oust President Donald Trump.
By Marina Fang and Daniel Marans
01/15/2019
NEW YORK ― Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) has launched an exploratory committee to begin raising money for a possible 2020 presidential campaign, she said Tuesday during an appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
“I’m filing an exploratory committee for president of the United States ― tonight!” Gillibrand told host Stephen Colbert, eliciting cheers from the studio audience.
Asked why she was running, Gillibrand replied, “I’m going to run for president of the united states, because as a young mom I am gonna fight for other people’s kids as hard as I fight for my own, which is why I believe health care is a right and not a privilege.
“It’s why I believe we should have better public schools for our kids ― it shouldn’t matter what block you grow up on, and I believe that anybody who wants to work hard enough should be able to get whatever job training they need to earn their way into the middle class,” she continued.
“But you are never gonna accomplish any of these things if you don’t take on the systems of power that make all of that impossible, which is taking on institutional racism, it’s taking on the corruption and greed in Washington, it’s taking on the special interests that write legislation in the dead of night. And I know that I have the compassion, courage and the fearless determination to get that done.”
Gillibrand, who had been widely expected to jump into the race, is the latest high-profile Democrat to confirm that she is seriously considering a bid to oust President Donald Trump in 2020.
In late December, fellow Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) became the first major Democratic figure to officially begin testing the waters for a 2020 run with the creation of an exploratory committee. Last week, former Obama administration Cabinet member Julián Castro and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) announced their entry into the field.
A number of Gillibrand’s Senate colleagues have been floated as possible 2020 Democratic presidential contenders, including Sens. Kamala Harris (Calif.), Cory Booker (N.J.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
Trump’s 2016 defeat of Hillary Clinton, who would have become the first female U.S. president, left Democrats hoping for a slate of several female candidates to challenge Trump in 2020 and make history.
Gillibrand is seen as well-positioned to do so as a frequent critic of Trump ― and a target of his sexist attacks. She has consistently voted against his policies and nominees. In 2017, she called for Trump’s resignation, citing the “numerous” and “credible” sexual harassment and assault allegations against him.
Gillibrand joined the Senate in 2009, appointed to fill the seat vacated by Clinton, who had been named secretary of state under President Barack Obama. The two first met during Clinton’s first Senate campaign in 2000, and Gillibrand came to consider her a mentor. Gillibrand later supported Clinton’s 2008 and 2016 presidential campaigns.
Before joining the Senate, Gillibrand, an attorney, served two years in the House representing New York’s 20th Congressional District, outside of the state capital of Albany. Representing a more conservative and rural area of the state, she was considered a moderate Democrat, and was part of the now-defunct group of Blue Dog Democrats in the House.
As a senator, she took on more progressive positions, later winning a special election in 2010 and a full Senate term in 2012. She handily won re-election last November.
One of Gillibrand’s key issues during her Senate tenure has been advocating for survivors of sexual violence. Long before the Me Too movement, she sponsored legislation to combat sexual misconduct in the workplace, on college campuses and in the military.
When the Me Too movement catalyzed the resignations of a spate of Capitol Hill lawmakers in 2017, Gillibrand led the charge to overhaul a set of arcane congressional policies for addressing sexual misconduct claims.
She, along with the other Democratic women of the Senate, called on then-Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) to resign over mounting sexual misconduct allegations from nearly 10 women. She subsequently generated an extraordinary amount of fury from some progressives and defenders of Franken who blamed her for his downfall, called her a political “opportunist” and pledged not to donate to her campaigns.
Gillibrand also made headlines when she said that former President Bill Clinton, who was accused of sexual misconduct by several women, should have resigned in 1998 after his extramarital affair with then-White House intern Monica Lewinsky became public.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kirsten-gillibrand-2020-presidential-exploratory-committee_us_5c37a3e1e4b0c469d76c52f0
