I begin a new series on 2020 US Presidential Candidates, include information on their biggest decisions in legislative government as well as other political information and certain background.

1. Charlie Cornwell September 4,
2019
The 2020 Candidate Profiles – Kirsten Gillibrand
theweeklyrambler.com/the-2020-candidate-profiles-kirsten-gillibrand/
This is the start of a new series that will be going on for a long while on this blog and will
start off fairly intermittant. For now I will be posting the profiles of candidates that have
dropped out of the race, but in 2020 closer to the election I will begin posting profiles of
Candidates still in the race in a more scheduled manner.
For now though I will post about the more well known candidates who drop out, starting
with Kirsten Gillibrand who dropped out of the 2020 race on August 28th 2019.
Six other candidates have also so far dropped out which include Richard Ojeda on Jan
25th 2019, Eric Swalwell on July 8th 2019 as he decided to instead run for re-election as a
House Representative, Mike Gravel who dropped out on August 6th 2019, little surprise
here as his run was mostly a humourous joke and not fully serious, he co-endorsed both
Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard as his preffered candidates. John Hickenlooper
dropped out on August 15th 2019 and will instead run for US Senate, again little surprise
as his campaign had basically ran out of money and he lacked popularity. Jay Inslee
dropped out on August 21st 2019 and will be running for re-election as Washington
Governor and finally Seth Moulton dropped out on August 23rd 2019 and his running
instead for re-election as a US Representative.
As of the above I will post the profiles of John Hickenlooper and Jay Inslee, the others I do
not see as popular or important enough. There are as of now 20 main Democratic
candidates and 2 main Republican candidates.
Kirsten Gillibrand
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2. .
DoB: December 9 1966 in Albany, New York, US.
Education: Graduated from Dartmouth College with magna cum
laude honors (meaning she was in 10-15% of her class) (1988)
Received Juris Doctor from UCLA School of Law and passed bar exam (1991)
Positions
Served as Special Counsel to Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Andrew
Cuomo on the final year of the Clinton Admin.
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3. Became leader of the Woman’s Leadership Forum program of the DNC.
Was a member of the Blue Dog Coalition Caucus when she was a Federal House
Representative.
When she was a member of the Federal House, she sat at numerous committee’s
including, the Committee on Agriculture including the Subcommittee on Conservation,
Credit, Energy and Research, the Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Culture and
the Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy and Poultry (which she also chaired). And the
Committee on Armed Services including the Subcommittee on Seapower and
Expeditionary Forces and the Subcommittee on Terrorism and Unconventional Threats.
Committees and subcommittees sat on while Federal Senator – Committee on
Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry including the Subcommittee on Domestic and Foreign
Marketing, Inspection and Plant and Animal Health where she is a ranking member,
Subcommittee on Energy, Science and Technology and the Subcommittee on Hunger,
Nutrition and Family Farms. The Committee on Armed Forces including the
Subcommittee on Personnel where she is a ranking member, the Subcommittee
on Airland, Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities and the Subcommittee
on Strategic Forces. The Committee on Environment and Public Works including the
Subcommittee on Green Jobs and the New Economy, Subcommittee on Oversight and
the Subcommittee on Superfund, Toxics and Environmental Health. And the Special
Committee on Aging.
In the Senate she is a member of the Healthy Kids Caucus, International Conservation
Caucus, Senate Woman’s Caucus, Sportsmen’s Caucus and the Afterschool Caucuses.
Other Notable Achievements
Became a partner of the Boies, Schiller & Flexner law firm in 2001 until 2005 where
she left to run for political office.
In 2014, Gillibrand was included in the annual Time 100, Time magazine’s list of the
100 most influential people in the world.
Released a political book in 2014 called Off the Sidelines: Raise Your Voice, Change
the World.
Overview
The current Senator for New York in the Federal Senate said on January 15th 2019 that
she had set up an expletory committee about running in 2020. Originally, she acted as a
more right-wing leaning Democrat on issues when she was a House Representative, but
has since become one of the most progressive Democrats, especially on woman’s issues,
LGBT rights, immigration and gun control. She is also another of the big Trump
critics. She officially announced she would run for president on 17 March 2019, making
her the 15 Democratic candidate. She dropped out the race on August 28th 2019 being
the 7th Democratic candidate to do so.
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4. Political Career Main Points
US Federal House Representative for New York’s 20 Congressional District – 2007
– 2009
Voted against the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, citing that it had
insufficient oversight and excessive earmarks.
Voted for legislation that withholds funding from immigrant sanctuary cities.
Voted for a bill that limits information-sharing between federal agencies about
firearm purchases.
US Senator to New York in the Federal Senate – 2009 – current
Was part of a successful campaign to repeal the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy which
prevented openly non-straight people from serving in the military.
Alongside Schumer, Gillibrand expressed strong support for Sonio Sotomayer to be
the first Latino Supreme Court Justice.
Another major legislative victory for Gillibrand was scored by seeing through
passage of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health & Compensation Act.
Co-sponsored the PROTECT IP Act in March 2011 which would limit access to
websites judged as infringing copyright, but she ended up withdrawing her support
from the bill due to wide critical public response. Note that she would still be in
favour of supporting another form of this bill.
Authored a portion of the STOCK Act in 2012, the bill extends limitations on insider
trading by Congress members, the bill passed and was signed into law by Obama.
Proposed legislation in 2013 that would remove sexual assault cases from the
military chain of command, the bill was co-sponsored by two Republican Senators,
Ted Cruz and Rand Paul but failed to get enough votes to break a filibuster.
Introduced the Family and Medical Insurance Paid Leave Act in December 2013.
Co-sponsored the Campus Accountability and Safety Act, a bill that would work to
reduce sexual assault on college and university campuses.
Co-sponsored the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, which was legislation that would make
political boycotting intended to protest actions by the Israeli government as a
federal offence with up to 20 years in prison, after controversy she later withdrew,
her support for the bill and said it needed to be changed before she would support
it again.
Co-sponsored a Medicare-for-all bill put forward by Bernie Sanders.
Other Political Activity/notes
When she was a member of the Federal House, she opposed plans to give illegal
immigrants driver’s licenses in New York.
Supports Civil Unions for same-sex couples.
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5. Became more Progressive in the Senate than she was in the House, she also has
said she was ashamed of her stances on immigration and guns during her Federal
House tenure.
Was very critical of Trump’s admin nominations and voted against most of them
alongside Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.
Has moved more towards gun control while in the Senate.
Has called for ICE to be abolished and replaced.
Supports Abortions Rights.
Supports Medicare-for-all.
Supports Federal Jobs Guarantee.
Open to raising taxes on the Financial Industry.
Strong supporter for woman’s equality and has a zero-tolerance policy on sexual
assault allegations, often calling on the accused to resign from their position.
Controversies
Israel Anti-Boycott Act
Gillibrand got into controversy after sponsoring a bill that would make it a major federal
offence to do political boycotts on the actions of Israel’s government. After the ACLU
deemed the legislation to be a violation of 1 amendment rights Gillibrand withdrew her
support and said that it had no relevance to individuals and would instead sponsor it if it
were changed to only apply to companies.
Thank you for reading and expect more of these to come in the future. Specifically the
John Hickenlooper and Jay Inslee profiles will be coming soon.
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