Kirsten Gillibrand to visit Ames voters
Katlyn Campbell/Iowa State Daily
Kirsten Gillibrand, New York senator, speaks to the audience of women’s rights activists at the closing of the 2019 Women’s March Iowa Jan. 19 at the Iowa Capitol in Des Moines. “Women still do not represent 51 percent of elected leaders in this country. Imagine just for a moment what America would look like if it did. Imagine what would be possible. Do you think we would still be fighting tooth and nail for basic reproductive freedoms in this country? No. Do you think that we’d be hesitating to pass a national paid leave bill, equal pay for equal work, affordable day care, universal pre-K? No. Do you think it would be so hard to end sexual violence in our military, on college campuses and in society in general? No. And finally do you think our senate would be causing a vote on denying women’s reproductive care when they should be opening the government and giving paychecks to the 800,000 workers who have gone without their pay this week,” Gillibrand said.
April 18, 2019
2020 presidential candidate Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., will be making her second visit to Ames at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Stomping Grounds.
The Iowa State College Democrats will host the event. Gillibrand previously visited Stomping Grounds in January.
The junior New York Senator announced her exploratory committee in January before officially announcing her bid for the presidency in March with a rally on the Upper West Side in Manhattan, outside the Trump International Hotel & Tower New York.
Gillibrand’s campaign has made women’s rights and combating sexual assault key components of her candidacy. According to her website, Gillibrand “has been the foremost champion for sexual assault survivors in Congress and has led efforts for justice and accountability in our military, on college campuses and in Congress.”
Gillibrand was the first member of the U.S. Senate to call for former Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., to resign after photos were revealed showing Franken groping women who were asleep and stories were published detailing Franken kissing and groping other women, also without their consent.
When she was elected to a rural congressional district in upstate New York in 2006, Gillibrand campaigned as a more conservative Democrat, receiving an A rating from the NRA and joining the Blue Dog Coalition of moderate and conservative House Democrats. In the Senate, however, Gillibrand has shifted her policies. Her NRA rating is now an F, and she has repudiated her former views on immigration when she supported increasing funding for deportations.
A March Selzer poll found Gillibrand was the first choice of 0 percent of likely-Iowa caucus-goers and the second choice of 1 percent.
