New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand kicks off reelection campaign

Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York is kicking off her reelection campaign.

The 56-year-old sent out an email to supporters on Thursday announcing her 2024 bid. ‘I wanted you to hear it first,’ the email said. ‘Kirsten is running for reelection to the United States Senate in 2024.’

Gillibrand has served as New York’s junior senator since 2009, taking over the seat vacated by Hillary Clinton.

Her campaign announcement comes as Democrats are scrutinizing their performance in New York, usually considered a stronghold for the party. Republicans in the 2022 midterm elections flipped four congressional seats, including one held by the head of the House Democrats’ campaign arm, while Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul defeated Republican Lee Zeldin in the narrowest win in a governor’s race in nearly three decades.

Gillibrand has made a point of carving out relationships with Republican colleagues on bipartisan legislation. She is best known as one of the leading voices in Washington against sexual harassment and military sexual assault, and is a proponent of equal pay and family leave proposals.

In 2022, she was instrumental in sending two sexual harassment measures to President Joe Biden. In milestones for the #MeToo movement, the bills that Biden signed into law curtailed the use of confidentiality agreements and gave workplace victims of sexual misconduct the right to seek recourse in the courts.

The senator has also been involved in a bipartisan push with Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., to regulate cryptocurrencies and other digital assets.

Gillibrand was first elected to Congress in 2007, winning a House seat in a conservative part of upstate New York and toppling an incumbent Republican. She won a 2010 special election for Senate and full terms in 2012 and 2018 reelection campaigns.

She was among a crowded field of Democratic presidential candidates seeking the party’s nomination in 2020 but dropped out of the race in 2019.