Kirsten Gillibrand Pleads for Donations, Claims Indifference Is Due to Her Gender

A recent Politico Magazine profile outlined 2020 presidential hopeful Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s (D-NY) desperate attempts to garner donations and concern over how her gender appeals to voters.

While she spoke at a micro-pub four miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean, Gillibrand told her supporters she needed financial assistance in order to be successful in the race for president.

“For anyone here, if you like what you’ve heard tonight, I want to earn my place on the debate stage. I can’t do it unless you send a dollar—literally, really,” Gillibrand said to a small crowd of supporters gathered in the pub. “The measure is for anyone who wants to be on the debate stage, you need to get 65,000 individual supporters. So please go to KirstenGillibrand.com and just send a dollar. It will help me get to the debate stage.”

Gillibrand, the author of a New York Times bestseller who was once named one of Time’s 100 most influential people in the world, also shared her concerns that gender plays a large role in who gets elected in the end.

In a conversation for Politico’s “Off Message” podcast, Gillibrand, according to Politico, “vacillated between insinuating that she is being treated differently because of her gender and arguing that Americans are ready for a female president.”

Gillibrand said.:

Hillary won the election. She won the popular vote by three million votes, and you have to remember, she was definitely the most qualified candidate we’d ever had running for president. And, but for Russia, but for Comey, but for misogyny, but for a lot of things, she would have won. So, I believe that of course this country is ready to elect a woman president, but they need to know what we’re running on and what we’re for, and why we’re running and why we think we’re the best candidate.

Politico questioned:

How did it come to this? How did one of America’s best-financed senators come to rely on charity and presidential pan-handling, begging for a dollar at a time just to stay alive? How did one of Washington’s most recognizable women find herself buried in the polls beneath a number of less prominent men? And how does she breathe life into her campaign before it’s too late?

In an attempt to excuse her low polling placement, Gillibrand referred to former President Bill Clinton’s polling as a presidential candidate, claiming “it takes time” for candidates to become well-known and improve in polls.

“The last couple of presidential candidates who were Democrats who won, or even are nominees, you had to look at where they were at this early stage,” Gillibrand stated. “I think somebody looked up where Bill Clinton was at this stage. He had one percent in the polls and had 30 percent name recognition in Iowa. So, like, it takes time.”

“And with 20 candidates, it might actually take longer … because for each one of us to have a chance to be heard, it’s going to take time,” added Gillibrand, who has yet to reach the required donor threshold.

“I mean, even the debates alone, if we get more than five minutes each on that stage, that’ll be surprising. So, you’re really even not even going to have more than a few minutes to talk about what you’re for and why you’re running and what your views are for the country,” she said.

When pressed on the “worst part of running for president,” Gillibrand said she does not like when reporters ask her about male colleagues.

“The one thing that’s annoying to me is how many times reporters ask you about our male colleagues. Who cares? I’m running for president. I want to tell you what my vision is, why I’m running, and why I’m going to win,” Gillibrand stated. “I think reporters like yourself, who are super smart and super careful, will always ask me what I think about the male colleagues. Are you asking the male colleagues what they think about us? Probably not.”