Kirsten Elizabeth Gillibrand (née Rutnik; (listen) KEER-stən JIL-i-brand; born December 9, 1966) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the...
Kirsten Elizabeth Gillibrand (née Rutnik; (listen) KEER-stən JIL-i-brand; born December 9, 1966) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the junior United States Senator from New York since 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served as member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 2007 to 2009.
Born and raised in upstate New York, Gillibrand graduated from Dartmouth College and from the UCLA School of Law. After holding positions in government and private practice and working on Hillary Clinton's 2000 U.S. Senate campaign, Gillibrand was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 2006. She represented New York's 20th congressional district, a conservative district in upstate New York, and was re-elected in 2008. During her House tenure, Gillibrand was a Blue Dog Democrat noted for voting against the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.
Following Senator Clinton's appointment as U.S. Secretary of State in 2009, Governor David Paterson selected Gillibrand to fill the Senate seat that had been vacated by Clinton, which made her New York's second female Senator. Gillibrand won a special election in 2010 to keep the seat, and was re-elected to full terms in 2012 and 2018. During her Senate tenure, Gillibrand has shifted to the left. She has been outspoken on sexual assault in the military and sexual harassment, having criticized President Bill Clinton and Senator Al Franken, both fellow Democrats, for alleged sexual misconduct. She supports paid family leave, a federal jobs guarantee, and the abolition and replacement of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Gillibrand was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in 2020, following an official campaign announcement on March 17, 2019. After failing to qualify for the third debate, she withdrew from the race on August 28, 2019.
VS
John Hickenlooper
John Wright Hickenlooper Jr. (; born February 7, 1952) is an American politician, businessman and geologist serving as the junior United States Senato...
John Wright Hickenlooper Jr. (; born February 7, 1952) is an American politician, businessman and geologist serving as the junior United States Senator from Colorado, having defeated incumbent Cory Gardner in 2020. A member of the Democratic Party, Hickenlooper was mayor of Denver from 2003 to 2011 and governor of Colorado from 2011 to 2019.
Born in Narberth, Pennsylvania, Hickenlooper is a graduate of Wesleyan University. After a career as a petroleum geologist, he co-founded the Wynkoop Brewing Company in Denver in 1988. Hickenlooper was elected the 43rd mayor of Denver in 2003, serving two terms. After incumbent governor Bill Ritter said that he would not seek reelection, Hickenlooper announced his intention to run for the Democratic nomination in January 2010. He won an uncontested primary and faced Constitution Party nominee Tom Tancredo and Republican Party nominee Dan Maes in the general election. Hickenlooper won with 51% of the vote and was reelected in 2014, defeating Republican Bob Beauprez.
As governor, he introduced universal background checks and banned high-capacity magazines in the wake of the 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting. He expanded Medicaid under the provisions of the Affordable Care Act, halving the rate of uninsured people in the state. Having initially opposed marijuana legalization, he has gradually come to support it.
He sought the Democratic nomination for president of the United States in 2019 but dropped out before primaries were held. He subsequently won the Democratic nomination to challenge Cory Gardner, the one-term Republican incumbent U.S. Senator from Colorado. He won the general election and assumed office on January 3, 2021. At 68, Hickenlooper became the oldest first-term senator to represent Colorado.
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!