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New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand announces presidential run
WASHINGTON, March 17, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand
on Sunday officially announced she would seek the Democratic party’s
nomination for the 2020 presidential election, taking aim at Donald Trump as
she formally joined the crowded field of challengers.
In a video released Sunday morning, she said the national anthem posed the
question: “Will brave win?”
“Well, it hasn’t always, and it isn’t right now,” she said. “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.”
The announcement was widely expected after the 52-year-old champion of
women’s rights told TV host Stephen Colbert in January she would be forming
an exploratory committee.
In an election cycle where Democratic candidates are tilting heavily to
the left, Gillibrand touted her vote against the Wall Street bailouts
supported by both major parties, pledged to work for universal health care,
and pass the so-called Green New Deal, an economic stimulus program aimed at
tackling climate change.
Gillibrand joins more than a dozen Democrats already in the race, including
Kamala Harris, Beto O’Rourke, Cory Booker in addition to independent Bernie
Sanders who ran against Clinton for the Democratic nomination in 2016.
But she has distinguished herself in key ways, raising her national
profile by sponsoring — and mounting a three-year campaign for — a bill
that would revamp how sexual assaults in the military are prosecuted by
removing them from the chain of command.
The bill fell short in the Senate, but Gillibrand has been relentless
about highlighting sexual assault in the military, on college campuses and in
the workplace.
She is also one of the top Trump naysayers in the Senate, voting against
the president’s nominees for major posts more than almost any other senator.
BSS/AFP/RY/1818 hrs