Kirsten Gillibrand drops 2020 presidential bid

New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand ended her campaign for the presidency on Aug. 28 after failing to meet qualifications for the September presidential debates.

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Shivansh Ahuja

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY., speaks at the Des Moines Register Political Soapbox during the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, IA on Saturday, August 10, 2019.

Julia Shanahan, Assistant Politics Editor

New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand dropped her bid for the Democratic presidential-nomination on Wednesday and said via Twitter she wants to focus on gaining a Democratic majority in the Senate.

“We have to defeat President Trump, flip the Senate, and elect women up and down the ballot,” Gillibrand said in a video on Twitter.

Gillibrand’s campaign focused heavily on issues of women’s rights, including reproductive health care and paid family leave. She said she would appoint federal and Supreme Court judges based on their support for Roe v. Wade.

Gillibrand often touted herself as a candidate who can accomplish the impossible, pointing to her record of winning elections in largely Republican districts in New York.

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Gillibrand failed to qualify for the third round of presidential debates, where a candidate needed to be polling at 2 percent in four DNC-approved polls and receive 130,000 unique campaign donations. Gillibrand was polling at an average of 0.1 percent at the time she ended her campaign, according to Real Clear Politics.