Exits presidential race

Kirsten Gillibrand exits presidential race

By ELENA SCHNEIDER

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand dropped out of the presidential race Wednesday evening, pledging to help the eventual Democratic nominee beat President Donald Trump next year.

The New York Democrat, who ran a distinctly feminist campaign, failed to meet the Democratic National Committee’s criteria for the committee's September presidential debate. A statement released by her campaign cited her lack of “access to the debate” stage as a reason she decided to end her run.

“We wanted to win this race,” Gillibrand said in a video posted on her Twitter account. “But it’s important to know when it’s not your time, and to know how you can best serve your community and country.”

Gillibrand championed women and families in her bid, becoming the first candidate to call for a pro-abortion rights litmus test for federal judicial nominations. She held rallies in Georgia and Missouri, after Republican state lawmakers passed a string of rigid anti-abortion laws. She was also one of the earliest and most vocal critics of President Donald Trump on the campaign trail, formally launching her campaign, after a brief exploratory period, at the foot of one of the president's hotels in Manhattan.

But Gillibrand struggled to stand out of the sprawling, diverse Democratic primary field, which included five other women. Like other candidates languishing at single or near zero digits in national polling, Gillibrand was not able to pull off a breakthrough moment. Instead, she received her first and only 2-percent poll earlier this month. She needed to get at least four such polls and accrue 130,000 donors to make the September debate stage.

Gillibrand's fundraising also lagged behind her rivals, despite becoming one of the top online fundraisers in the Democratic Party at the beginning of Trump's presidency in 2017.

One of the senator's most memorable moments came on the debate stage last month, when she confronted former Vice President Joe Biden's record on paid family leave, citing an editorial he wrote that said working women would "create the detoriation of the family." But her attack failed to land, after she hinted at the line earlier that weekend. Biden, for his part, punched back at Gillibrand, recalling a time she commended him for his advocacy for equality.

"I don't know what's happened except that you're now running for president," Biden said.

Still, Gillibrand built a reputation as a creative campaigner who showed up at unconventional locales. She bartended at Iowa's oldest gay bar, arm-wrestled college students and appeared at a drag show in Des Moines. She also appeared on Fox News — a controversial choice that some 2020 Democrats declined to follow. Her appearance elicited a memorable line from Fox host Chris Wallace, who called her "not very polite" when she pushed back on the network's coverage.

Earlier this spring, her campaign took on brief viral fame at an event in Iowa — but not for campaign-boosting reasons. Gillibrand stopped a woman passing by her at a restaurant in the first caucus state, but the woman, who was not intending to speak to the senator, said: "Sorry, I'm just trying to get some ranch."

A video clip of the exchange was viewed hundreds of thousands of times online, and an Iowa clothing company put the phrase on a t-shirt.