Senator Kirsten Gillibrand drops out of 2020 presidential race

Champion of women's rights steps aside after failing to qualify for third Democrats debate

Kirsten Gillibrand championed women's rights during her short-lived candidacy (AFP/Getty Images)

Democrat senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, who presented herself in the presidential race as a champion of women and families, has confirmed that she is withdrawing from the 2020 presidential race after failing to qualify for a third debate next month — a development she described as fatal to her candidacy.

Ms Gillibrand said in an interview on Wednesday that she would endorse another candidate in the primary but had not yet picked a favourite.

Though she stopped short of saying she would endorse a woman, Ms Gillibrand, who has made electing women to Congress a personal cause, said the next president had to be capable of uniting the country and suggested that a woman might be best suited for the job.

“I think that women have a unique ability to bring people together and heal this country,” Ms Gillibrand said, adding, “I think a woman nominee would be inspiring and exciting.”

But she added: “I will support whoever the nominee is, and I will do whatever it takes to beat Trump.”

Ms Gillibrand, 52, had anchored her candidacy in issues of women’s equality, with a strong emphasis on abortion rights.

She pledged to screen nominees for judgeships based on their support for the 'Roe v Wade' decision legalising abortion, and held rallies in two Republican-leaning states, Georgia and Missouri, where conservative lawmakers recently passed new restrictions on the procedure.

Ms Gillibrand also repeatedly challenged former vice president Joe Biden, the Democratic front-runner, over his record on women’s rights.

She assailed him in June for supporting a law that bars federal funding for abortion, a stance Biden soon recanted. In the most recent primary debate, Ms Gillibrand criticised Mr Biden for having opposed a proposal in the early 1980s to expand the child tax credit; Mr Biden described that as ancient history and questioned the sincerity of Ms Gillibrand’s rebuke.

Ms Gillibrand said she would return to the Senate and continue to champion the causes of her presidential campaign. She intends to revive her political committee, 'Off the Sidelines', that has been dormant during the presidential race, and use it to support female candidates for the House and Senate in 2020.

“I’m really going to focus on electing women up and down the ballot,” she said.

The Washington Post