N.Y. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand joins Democratic race for president

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, an outspoken advocate for women’s causes and electing more women to office, is entering the 2020 race for the White House herself, becoming the latest candidate to join what is expected to be a crowded Democratic primary to take on President Trump.

In an appearance Tuesday on the “Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” Gillibrand, a New York Democrat, said she was forming an exploratory committee to raise money and travel the country for her run. She is scheduled to start campaigning within days, with plans to spend the weekend in Iowa.

“I’m going to run for president of the United States because as a young mom I am going to fight for other people’s kids as hard as I would fight for my own,” she said.

Gillibrand has emerged as one of the most strident critics of the Trump administration. She has voted against nearly every significant nominee Mr. Trump has put forward, and rallied opposition to his congressional agenda. In the last two months, she has spoken repeatedly about the need to restore the “moral compass” of the nation.

But Gillibrand, a 52-year-old former corporate lawyer, has been criticized by opponents as a politician without a firm ideological bearing, having transformed from a pro-gun, conservative upstate congresswoman with deep ties to Wall Street financiers to a crusading liberal who rails against guns and refuses corporate political action committee money.