Kirsten Gillibrand Drops out of 2020 Presidential Race

Surrounded by her family, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) announces that she will run for president in 2020 outside the Country View Diner in Troy, N.Y., on Jan. 16, 2019. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) is the latest Democratic candidate to announce that she has ended her bid for the 2020 presidential race, becoming the seventh Democratic candidate to drop out of the 2020 presidential race.

“Today, I am ending my campaign for president. 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,” she wrote in a Twitter post on Aug. 28.

“To our supporters: Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. Now, let’s go beat Donald Trump and win back the Senate.”

In a video accompanying her Twitter post, Gillibrand told her supporters: “I know this isn’t the result that we wanted. We wanted to win this race.”

“But it’s important to know when it’s not your time and to know how you can best serve your community and country,” she added.

President Donald Trump reacted to the announcement, writing on Twitter: “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!” he added.

Gillibrand, who was polling regularly under one percent according to Real Clear Politics, has made abortion rights the key issue of her 2020 campaign. She declared last month in a post on Medium that she would only nominate judges who would uphold the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade.

“I will only nominate judges — including Supreme Court justices — who will commit to upholding Roe v. Wade as settled law and protect women’s reproductive rights,” she wrote.

In June, she was engaged in a heated conversation with Fox News’ host Chris Wallace during her town hall in Iowa after she took the opportunity to rip into the news network.

“I can tell you, before President Trump gave his State of the Union, Fox News talked about infanticide. Infanticide doesn’t exist …” Gillibrand said before further criticizing the network and calling the debate surrounding abortion a “red herring.”

Gillibrand’s announcement comes after Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), who was also regularly polling under one percent, announced his exit from the race on Aug. 23.

Former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel, former West Virginia Sen. Richard Ojeda, and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) were the first three candidates to drop out of the race. This was followed by former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, who dropped out on Aug. 15, and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who dropped out on Aug. 21.

This is a developing story. Please check back for more details.