Presidential Hopeful Gillibrand Talks Up Bipartisan Successes During Iowa Trip

Gillibrand’s trip came three days after she announced she intends to run for president

Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand talked about her rural roots in upstate New York and her bipartisan efforts in Congress during a two-day visit to Iowa, which holds the first-in-the-nation presidential caucus and a key stop for any 2020 presidential candidate.

Gillibrand’s trip came three days after she announced she intends to run for president. She participated in a Women’s March at the state capitol and talked to hundreds of voters at small events, NBC News reported.

A Democratic rival, Sen Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, got bigger crowds during a trip earlier in January.

“I’m not a national name and the fact that you turned out to meet me — I’m so grateful,” Gillibrand told a coffee shop crowd in Ames, where her campaign handed out some of the first Gillibrand campaign T-shirts of the cycle on Saturday. “I plan on being here a lot, so I really appreciate this first opportunity.

She presented herself as uniquely qualified to appeal across the aisle, a result of her politically moderate beginnings and her progressive bonafides as a liberal senator.

“I work on a bipartisan basis every day. I worked [with] Ted Cruz on ending sexual harassment in Congress — I can work with anybody,” she said to laughs later that day in Des Moines.

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