New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand announced Wednesday that she was ending her 2020 presidential campaign after she failed to meet fundraising and polling thresholds for September’s Democratic primary debate in Houston.
“Today, I am ending my campaign for president,” Gillibrand wrote on Twitter. “I am so proud of this team and all we’ve accomplished. But I think it’s important to know how you can best serve. To our supporters: Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. Now, let’s go beat Donald Trump and win back the Senate.”
“After more than eight incredible months, I’m ending my presidential campaign. We wanted to win this race, but it’s important to know when its not your time and to know how you can best serve your community and country,” she said in an accompanying video.
She made the decision after speaking to her family and as it became “clear she would not make the stage.”
Gillibrand also said in an interview that she would endorse another Democrat in the primary, although she did not point to a specific candidate. The senator stressed, however, that the U.S. needed a candidate who could unite it, suggesting that a woman would be most suited to do so.
“I think that women have a unique ability to bring people together and heal this country. I think a woman nominee would be inspiring and exciting,” Gillibrand noted, according to The New York Times, which first reported the news that she was dropping out of the race.
Gillibrand had made issues of women’s equality, especially abortion rights, the focus of her campaign. On several occasions, she challenged former Vice President Joe Biden over his past views on women’s rights, including on his support for a law that bans federal funding for abortion, which he later retracted.
President Trump responded to her announcement with a tweet of his own, saying, “A sad day for the Democrats, Kirsten Gillibrand has dropped out of the Presidential Primary. I’m glad they never found out that she was the one I was really afraid of!”
Three other Democratic candidates ended their presidential campaigns in the past two weeks, moving immediately to down-ballot races.
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