March 24, 2019
NY Senator Kirsten Gillibrand held a campaign rally today across the street from the Trump International in Columbus Circle as wind gusts kept the sunny Spring day on the chilly side. Several hundred people came out to show their support for our hometown candidate for the Democratic nomination and the Presidency. Gillibrand is currently a longshot to win either one, but of course so was the current White House occupant at this stage of the 2016 contest. She joins a veritable Kentucky Derby’s worth of rival D runners in what’s sure to be an elimination derby before it’s over.
Improbable longshot isn’t exactly a new role for her. In 2006, as she reminded the crowd today, nobody thought she had a chance to win a US Rep race upstate. “People told me ‘there’s more cows than Democrats. You can’t possibly win.'” But she did win that year and was reelected before being named Senator when Hillary Clinton was confirmed as Secretary of State. She’s been in the Senate since ’09.
A half a dozen speakers warmed up the crowd for her today, all of them touching on her campaign theme of “Brave Wins.” A pair of Dreamers, a woman who lost two kids to gun violence and then started an organization to end violence, a gay Dad and a trans military veteran, a woman who survived sexual abuse, and finally her college roommate. The latter shared a tale of them getting lost in the dark biking around in China during a severe storm way back then. Kirsten led the way with aplomb and thus demonstrated her bravery.
In her stump speech she dinged President Trump for being a coward and for always punching down. She offered a diagnosis that the country’s heading in the wrong direction and needs a course correction to return it to its authentic values of tolerance and fearlessness. Channeling beloved downtown icon, Fearless Girl, the candidate told the crowd, “being brave doesn’t just mean standing up for yourself. It means standing up for those who need you.”
