SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand introduced herself to Iowa Democrats as a common-sense fighter for family, and especially children’s, issues, in her first visit to the early-voting state as a 2020 Democratic presidential prospect. Unlike some of her potential rivals, the New York senator was starting from scratch in a state where few Democratic activists have a strong impression of her and where some say she’s known more for criticisms of her.
“We have to take on these systems of power that destroy our hopes” for better lives for families, Gillibrand told a dozen Sioux City Democrats at a coffee shop in the western Iowa city Friday. “That’s why I’m running, and that’s what I think we have to fight for.” Gillibrand, who announced her intentions to run on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on Tuesday, wasted little time getting to the state where the 2020 caucuses launch the Democratic presidential selection process.
Gillibrand initially positioned herself more in line with the conservative House district she represented before 2009, when she replaced Hillary Clinton as New York’s junior senator. She was asked to explain the change during a gathering of party activists in Sioux City at the private home of a prominent Democrat. Gillibrand told the roughly two dozen guests that after she had become a senator, she met with the family and friends of a teenage girl who had been shot and killed in Brooklyn. “I had just felt convicted that I had done the wrong thing” by opposing gun control, she said. “And if I’m unwilling to fight for her family, I’m not doing my job.”
On immigration, she has now called for retooling the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
Likewise, she was asked why she was the first public advocate for former Minnesota Sen. Al Franken to resign. Gillibrand has faced withering criticism from Democrats who said Franken, who resigned his seat in December 2017 after allegations by women that he had groped them, had done far less than what other men have been accused of doing, chiefly President Donald Trump, though the president has denied all allegations of sexual impropriety.
On Friday, Gillibrand headlined the house gathering after chatting for 45 minutes with Iowans and the entourage of media in the coffee shop. She was one of the few prominent 2020 Democrats who attended a Women’s March event this year amid anti-Semitism charges that have plagued the event’s national leadership team. But the senator said the controversy wouldn’t disrupt her commitment to the march’s broader mission. Gillibrand also praised Iowa voters for sending two women represent the state in Congress.
Gillibrand’s Iowa trip is the beginning of her journey to introduce herself to more Americans outside New York, which she has represented in Washington since 2006, first as a congresswoman and then as a senator. She has distinguished herself in the nation’s capital with her outspoken opposition to President Donald Trump and her forceful advocacy for victims of sexual assault and harassment.
Unlike several of the more than a dozen Democrats who have signaled an interest in running,
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