Gillibrand: ‘I definitely want to run for president again’

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) says she’s is “definitely” eyeing another run for president.

“I definitely want to run for president again,” Gillibrand, who ran for the White House in 2020, told Politico in an article published Thursday.

“I learned so much on that campaign: about myself, about the country, about how to be successful as a politician. I became a much better speaker and became better at my job,” she added.

Gillibrand did note, however, that she feels more “energized” than ever to be a senator.

Gillibrand, who first entered the Senate in 2009 to fill Hillary Clinton’s seat after she became secretary of State, ran an unsuccessful campaign for president in 2020, dropping out months before any votes were cast in the primary.

Throughout the race, Gillibrand failed to consistently poll above 1 percent in national surveys, and she could not attract the 130,000 unique donors needed to qualify for the September 2019 primary debate, which ultimately led to the suspension of her campaign.

At one point, Gillibrand’s campaign suggested her low fundraising totals could be attributed to backlash she faced after calling for former Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) to resign, which he did in January 2018, over allegations of sexual misconduct.

Gillibrand, however, may be on the precipice of a breakout year, as her longtime effort to pass new legislation relating to sexual assault in the military reached a critical turning point last week, after years of resistance from Pentagon officials and lawmakers.

A number of bills put forward in the House and Senate gained the support of lawmakers who once sidelined such legislation, exciting advocates that action may finally be taken to address the issue at hand.

Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) last week said he would lead a House push to revamp how military sexual assault claims are handled. The legislation would change who decides whether to prosecute sexual assaults and other serious crimes, moving authority from the hands of military commanders to specially trained military prosecutors.

The legislation will be a companion to the bipartisan Senate bill, dubbed the Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act, which had 61 bipartisan co-sponsors as of last week.

With that amount of support, the legislation can survive a filibuster in the Senate, the rule that requires legislation to be supported by at least 60 senators to move forward.