2020 Election: Meet Kirsten Gillibrand

Meet Kirsten Elizabeth Gillibrand, a mother of two, wife of Jonathan Gillibrand, and one of the prospective Democratic candidates for the 2020 Presidential Election. She is an American attorney and one of the current Senators from New York since 2009. Prior to this office position, Gillibrand was the Representative of NY’s 20th congressional district from 2007 until her Senate appointment.

Gillibrand attended Dartmouth College where she majored in Asian Studies and received Magna Cum Laude when graduating in 1988. Afterward, she enrolled at University of California-Los Angeles College of Law and graduated in 1991. Post Law School, she worked as a court clerk for the federal Court of Appeals Judge Roger Miner, a possible Republican nominee for the Supreme Court.

On January 8, 2019, she goes on The Colbert Report to announce that she is forming an exploratory committee and throwing her hat into the ring for the 2020 election. On the show she says that she is “going to run for president of the United States because as young mom I am going to fight for other people’s kids as hard as I will fight for my own, which is why I believe health care should be a right, not a privilege. It is why I believe we should have better public schools for our kids because it shouldn’t matter what block you grow up on. And I believe 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.”

Gillibrand is a strong believer in transparency and committed to it. She was the first member of Congress in history to post her official daily meetings, personal financial disclosures and earmark requests online for her constituents to see. This commitment  was continued into her Senate position with posting her tax returns.

In her campaign, she is strongly promoting a focus on families. She is one of six women to give birth while serving in congress and brings a personal perspective in her fight for economic and personal security of families. Included in this fight is universal pre-K, affordable and high quality day care, equal pay for work, national paid family and medical leave program, and woman’s reproductive health care.

Another part of her campaign is economic growth, jobs and lower health care costs. Because it is known to Kirsten that paychecks do not match the standard cost of living for most families, she made it a mission to raise wages and lower costs of living. She has been an advocate for lower health care costs and battled with big drug and pharmaceutical companies to lower the costs of prescription drugs. She also believes that everyone deserves a good job and a paycheck that allows them to pay bills, save for their retirement, and their child’s future.

Keeping the American people safe is the first priority of the NY Senator. She has taken on the gun lobbyists and works tirelessly to pass gun safety measures like her anti-trafficking bill, universal background checks and legislation to close loopholes that allow terrorists, dangerous criminals and domestic abusers from receiving them.

Gillibrand’s last points are about her empowering of women and girls and her desire for bringing people together to get results. She passed the 9/11 health bill to protect first responders sick and dying from the toxins at ground zero, repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, and reforming Congressional ethics laws. She has made it a part of her life mission to give women a voice in public debates. In 2010, she launches Off the Sidelines. A call to action to encourage women and girls to make their voices heard on the issues they care about. This helped to support dozens of women candidates for higher office and helped elect some of the Democratic Party’s brightest rising stars.

If any candidate you have heard about should declare their run for presidency, it should be Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. Just like she says in her slogan “Now is our time. Let’s go.”