Presidential hopeful Kirsten Gillibrand's campaign visit interrupted by girl 'on a mission' to get ranch dressing

Hope Schreiber
·Writer


On Monday evening, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand stopped at the Airliner, a bar and restaurant in Iowa City, as part of a Presidents’ Day caucus visit. A 22-year-old University of Iowa senior, Hanna Kinney, also visited the restaurant that night for her regular Bible study meeting with friends, according to the Washington Post.

Kinney, who is a fan of the Airliner’s homemade ranch dressing, walked through the restaurant to grab some to accompany the pizza she and her pals had ordered. Because of Gillibrand’s presidential campaign stop, the place was packed.

An undeterred Kinney, who has since been lovingly dubbed “Ranch Girl,” decided to make her way through the crowd, brushing past Gillibrand herself on the way.

“Sorry, I’m just gonna get some ranch,” she announced as she snuck past.

“Being someone who is only 5’2”, I can’t really see over most people, so I was like, I’ll just have to push through,” she told the Post. “I was just a girl on a mission to get some ranch for me and my friends.”

Kinney also admitted that she didn’t realize a campaign event was happening.

“I had no idea what was going on,” Kinney told New York Magazine. “I’m a pretty political-minded person, but with senior year, everything has been coming at me. I figured … the election is still two years away.”

The secondslong interaction stayed with Gillibrand as well, and she offered to buy the sociology, communications and philosophy student a slice on her next trip to Iowa City.

“Sen. Gillibrand will never stand between a Midwesterner and their side of ranch, especially when it’s served up with the Airliner’s famous pizza,” Rachel Irwin, Gillibrand’s Iowa communications director told the Des Moines Register. “We thank the hundreds of Iowans who came out to hear Sen. Gillibrand in Iowa City and have some fun along the way.”

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