Democrat said she wants to ‘take on’ Trump because he is ‘ripping apart the fabric’ of the US at her first campaign stop

The Democratic senator Kirsten Gillibrand kicked off her campaign for president of the United States on Wednesday, saying she wants to take on Donald Trump because he is “ripping apart the fabric of this country”.

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Outside a traditional diner that she frequents in the small upstate New York town of Brunswick, Gillibrand effectively made her first campaign stop the morning after announcing on a TV talkshow that she was forming an exploratory committee to enter the race for the White House – the first formal step in a presidential run.

That is traditionally followed by the politician filing paperwork with the Federal Election Commission, which makes them subject to US election laws, and then making a big, stagey speech to announce their official candidacy.

Gillibrand can now be considered up and running, alongside the six other Democratic candidates – some high-profile, others lower-profile or downright obscure – who have so far confirmed their intention also to run. Many others are being discussed, sending out signals or saying “maybe”, but have not yet made a formal announcement. No Republicans have entered the race to unseat Trump.

“I’m going to run for president of the United States, because as a young mom I will fight for your children as hard as I would fight for my own,” Gillibrand said.

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Gillibrand, 52, joins what is expected to be a crowded field of Democrats vying for the nomination to challenge Trump in 2020.

“We have to take on President Trump and what he is doing. I believe he is literally ripping apart the fabric of this country, the moral fabric,” she told reporters outside the Country View diner, near her home in upstate New York. She plans to have her campaign headquarters in nearby Troy.

Gillibrand has been a fierce Trump critic, and has the most consistently anti-Trump voting record of any senator, according to a score by the political data website FiveThirtyEight.

She has been a champion of sexual assault survivors in the #MeToo era, and worked to combat sexual assault in the military and on college campuses. She has embraced a host of liberal causes, becoming the first US senator to call for abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agency. She represents New York state in Congress, having taken over Hillary Clinton’s seat when the latter became secretary of state in Barack Obama’s administration.

But Gillibrand’s announcement she will run for president is a reversal from less than three months ago, when she promised during a debate that she would serve her full six-year term in the US Senate and not run for the White House.

“I will serve my six-year term,” she said in the October re-election debate.

Asked about the pledge on Wednesday, Gillibrand claimed the “sense of urgency” about running for president has only grown in her in recent months.

Gillibrand said she would not accept money from corporate partisan fundraising political action committees (Pacs) or federal lobbyists, and said she did not want an outside so-called Super Pac supporting her candidacy. “We need to get money out of politics,” she said. “I don’t think we should have individual Super Pacs, and I don’t want one.”

The New York senator angered some Democratic donors, including financier George Soros, with her vocal stance against former senator Al Franken when he was accused of sexual misconduct. She was among the first to call for him to resign, setting off a flood of calls for him to step down from fellow Democrats, which ultimately forced him out of office.

Gillibrand has stood by her stance. “I will stand up for what I believe, especially when it’s hard. And with Senator Franken, it’s sad for many people, but after eight allegations of sexual harassment and groping, credible allegations at the time, I just couldn’t stay silent,” she said. “And if some wealthy individuals, that makes them angry, that’s on them.”

Gillibrand was joined at the diner, which she called her favorite spot, by her 10- and 15-year-old sons, along with her husband and mother.

The senator has moved to the left in recent times.

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She was a member of the centrist Blue Dog Coalition and once opposed many gun control measures, earning an “A” grade from the National Rifle Association which has now been changed to an “F”. She also previously opposed granting driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants, which she now supports.

Gillibrand said on Wednesday that meeting families affected by gun violence changed her perspective on the issue.

“When I met parents who lost their child to gun violence. … I was convinced, and said I have to fight for them too, I have to make sure that we fight to end gun violence,” she said. “I think it’s important to know when you’re wrong, and to do what’s right.”

The other Democrats already in the presidential race so far are: Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren; former housing secretary Julián Castro; Hawaii representative and Iraq war veteran Tulsi Gabbard; former Maryland congressman John Delaney; former army major and ex-West Virginia state senator Richard Ojeda; and entrepreneur Andrew Yang, who supports a government-provided universal basic income.

Many more candidates, including household names, are expected to launch campaigns in the coming weeks.