Kirsten Gillibrand, United States Senator, New York

Kirsten Gillibrand is a United States Senator from New York and a member of the Democratic Party. Prior to her career in politics, she worked as a securities lawyer in New York City for more than a decade. As a member of a politically active family, Gillibrand wanted to have a voice in politics, and decided to leave her Manhattan job to work in Washington D.C. as Special Counsel for Andrew Cuomo, then the United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under the Clinton Administration.

Gillibrand decided to run for office in Albany, and was twice elected to the United States House of Representatives in 2007 and again in 2009. In her first congressional election, she won against the four-term incumbent, John E. Sweeney, receiving 53 percent of the vote. When President Barack Obama appointed Hillary Rodham Clinton as Secretary of State, Governor Paterson appointed Gillibrand to this seat in the U.S. Senate. Gillibrand was required to run a special election in 2010, winning with 63 percent of the vote. She has served as New York’s Senator since 2009.

On March 17, 2019, Gillibrand officially announced that she would be running for president in 2020. “Brave doesn’t pit people against each other. Brave doesn’t put money over lives. Brave doesn’t spread hate. Cloud truth. Build a wall. That’s what fear does,” she said in her announcement video titled “Brave Wins.”