This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Kirsten Gillibrand formally launched her presidential bid on Sunday morning, announcing she will deliver her first major speech next week – in front of Trump International Hotel in New York City.

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The New York senator, who launched an exploratory committee earlier this year and has been visiting early voting states, now formally joins more than a dozen Democrats in the contest to challenge Donald Trump in November 2020.

“We need a leader who makes big, bold, brave choices,” Gillibrand said in a video released on Sunday morning. “Someone who isn’t afraid of progress. That’s why I’m running for president. And it’s why I’m asking you for your support.“

Gillibrand, 52, has not seen great improvement in her polling numbers increase since her initial announcement, a benefit some opponents enjoyed after starting their campaigns. She remains at 1% in most public opinion polls.

Gillibrand opted to use a video instead of a speech at a rally, the traditional method, to formally launch her campaign. She will travel on Monday to Michigan, followed by stops in Iowa and Nevada.

On 24 March, she will deliver a launch speech in her home state in front of Trump International Hotel, seeking to take “her positive, brave vision of restoring America’s moral integrity straight to President Trump’s doorstep,” her campaign said.

The launch video alluded to policy debates including immigration, gun control and climate change.

“We launched ourselves into space and landed on the moon. If we can do that, we can definitely achieve universal healthcare,” Gillibrand said. “We can provide paid family leave for all, end gun violence, pass a Green New Deal, get money out of politics and take back our democracy.”

Gillibrand has sought to position herself as a unifying figure who can appeal to rural voters. Some in the Democratic party believe an establishment figure who can appeal to centrist voters is the way to victory. Others argue a fresh face, and particularly a diverse one, is needed to energize the party’s increasingly left-leaning base.

Gillibrand was a member of the centrist and fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition while in the House of Representatives. Her positions became more liberal after she was appointed to fill the Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton when Clinton became Barack Obama’s first secretary of state.

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Gillibrand won the seat in a special election and was re-elected in 2012 and 2018. She has attributed her ideology shift to representing a liberal state versus a more conservative district.

As a senator, Gillibrand was outspoken about rape in the military and campus sexual assault years before the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and assault arose in 2017.

In late 2017, as she pushed for a bill changing how Congress processes and settles sexual harassment allegations made by staffers, some party leaders criticized her for being the first Democratic senator to urge the resignation of Minnesota senator Al Franken, who was accused of groping and kissing women without their consent.

In the same period, Gillibrand said Hillary Clinton’s husband, former president Bill Clinton, should have resigned after his affair with intern Monica Lewinsky, which led to his impeachment. Some criticized the senator for attacking the Clintons, who had supported her political career.