New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a central figure in the Democratic Party's debate about the #MeToo movement, is joining the 2020 presidential primary contest that features a record number of women.
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Gillibrand, 52, announced the formation of a presidential exploratory committee on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, ahead of a weekend trip to Iowa, where the first 2020 Democratic contest will be held.
"I'm going to run for president of the United States because as a young mum I am going to fight for other people's kids as hard as I would fight for my own," she said.
Gillibrand is joining a rapidly growing field that for the first time will offer Democrats a wide choice of female candidates.
The 2020 line-up already includes Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who were among the first to take formal steps to enter the race.
Senator Kamala Harris of California is expected to make a formal announcement this month and Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota is also considering a run.
Gillibrand is expected to open her campaign headquarters in Troy, New York, a city near Albany that was part of her congressional district when she served in the House from 2007 to 2009.
Gillibrand was appointed to the Senate in 2009 after Hillary Clinton left to become secretary of state in the Obama administration. In the Senate, she has staked out a more liberal profile than she had in the House, when she represented a district that is more Republican and rural than the state as a whole and took more conservative positions on immigration and gun rights.
In the Senate, she has been an advocate for gay rights, helping push for repeal of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. She spearheaded legislation combating sexual assault in the military.
Among 2020 candidates, Gillibrand is likely to lean the hardest into her record as an advocate for women.
Her record on issues of particular concern to women, however, has not been without controversy within the Democratic Party. In 2017, in the early, stormy days of the #MeToo movement, she was the first senator to call for Democratic Senator Al Franken of Minnesota to resign after multiple accounts of sexual misconduct.
Gillibrand was applauded by many women, but other Democrats allied with Franken viewed her statements as a rush to judgment and hold a grudge against her for leading the charge.
Australian Associated Press
