In an appearance Tuesday on the “Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said she was forming an exploratory committee to raise money and travel the country for her run. She is scheduled to start campaigning within days, with plans to spend the weekend in Iowa.
“I’m going to run for president of the United States because as a young mom I am going to fight for other people’s kids as hard as I would fight for my own,” she said.
Gillibrand has emerged as one of the most forceful critics of the Trump administration in the last two years. She has voted against nearly every significant nominee Trump has put forward, and rallied opposition to his congressional agenda. In the last two months, as she publicly considered a campaign, she has spoken repeatedly about the need to restore the “moral compass” of the nation.
But Gillibrand, a 52-year-old former corporate lawyer, has been criticized by opponents as a politician without a firm ideological bearing of her own, having transformed from a pro-gun, conservative upstate congresswoman with deep ties to Wall Street financiers to a crusading liberal who rails against guns and refuses corporate political action committee money.
Gillibrand’s 2020 announcement was widely expected after weeks of presidential buildup, in which she secured office space for a headquarters in Troy, New York, and expanded her political staff.
Gillibrand is not the first woman or even the first female senator to announce her bid; Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts formed an exploratory committee two weeks ago.
Other senators expected to enter the race soon include Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, while Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., former Vice President Joe Biden and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke are weighing candidacies.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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