N.Y. senator previews presidential run
TROY, New York — A day after jumping into the presidential race in a Manhattan television studio, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand returned Wednesday to her upstate New York hometown to preview a campaign that is expected to put gender front and center.
Speaking outside a Troy diner she said is “a stone’s throw” from her family’s house, Gillibrand framed the campaign as an extension of motherhood.
“I’m going to run for president of the United States because as a young mom, I will fight for your children as hard as I would fight for my own,” Gillibrand, 52, said as she was joined by her husband, Jonathan, their 10- and 15-year-old sons, and her mother, Polly.
Gillibrand, who announced the creation of a presidential exploratory committee Tuesday on CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, won’t be the only woman seeking the White House — Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii have already jumped into the race, and several other women are expected to soon follow them.
First appointed to the Senate in 2009, Gillibrand has been among the chamber’s most vocal members on issues like sexual harassment, military sexual assault, equal pay for women and paid family leave.
As she campaigned for her second full term in the Senate last year, Gillibrand pledged she would serve out her six-year term if re-elected. On Wednesday, she said she had been moved by the “urgency of this moment,” saying that it called for taking on President Donald Trump “directly.”