Gillibrand, Kirsten, << JIHL uh brand, KEER stuhn >> (1966-…), a Democrat from New York, became a United States senator in 2009. She was appointed to the seat after Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was named U.S. secretary of state under President Barack Obama. Gillibrand later won election to full terms in the Senate. Prior to Gillibrand’s appointment as senator, she had served in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Kirsten Rutnick was born on Dec. 9, 1966, in Albany, New York. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Asian studies from Dartmouth College in 1988 and a law degree from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1991. After graduation, she worked as a law clerk in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Later, she worked as a lawyer in private practice. She married Jonathan Gillibrand, a British consultant and engineer, in 2001.
Kirsten Gillibrand served as a special counsel to the U.S. secretary of housing and urban development in the administration of President Bill Clinton in 2000 and 2001. Gillibrand, who has described herself as a political moderate, was elected to the House of Representatives in 2006 and reelected in 2008. In 2009, New York Governor David Paterson named Gillibrand to fill the seat left vacant by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who became U.S. secretary of state under President Barack Obama. In 2010, Gillibrand won a special election to fill out the last two years of Clinton’s Senate term. She was elected to her first full Senate term in 2012, and she was reelected in 2018.
As a senator, Gillibrand has served on the committees on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry; Armed Services; and Environment and Public Works. Gillibrand has written two books: Off the Sidelines: Speak Up, Be Fearless, and Change Your World (2014) and Bold & Brave: Ten Heroes Who Won Women the Right to Vote (2018). In March 2019, Gillibrand began a campaign for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president. She dropped out of the race in August 2019, however, citing low support in public polls.
