Washington Post: “The majority of Democratic hopefuls have yet to experience a moment like the surge of interest in Mayor Pete or Beto or Elizabeth Warren, let alone the preexisting support afforded the two candidates approaching their 80th birthdays. But Gillibrand’s lack of anointing seems conspicuous. After all, on paper, she’s set herself up to succeed.”

“Maybe it’s that her recalibration on guns and immigration is often framed as pandering. Maybe it’s because her role in Al Franken’s Senate resignation has been cast as inconvenient for Democrats and convenient for her. Maybe it’s sexism.”

“Or maybe it’s all these things, with one other factor thrown in: At a time when our national cortisol level is tied to the president’s Twitter feed, and when candidates are live-streaming and clapping back and eating salads with hair equipment, it has become unforgivable to be boring… Gillibrand’s brand — motherly, responsible, pragmatic, experienced — is going to be a tough sell if what we really want, at some level, is for our politicians to entertain us.”

The Atlantic: “People working with her campaign acknowledge that she clearly underestimated how much her being out front in calling for Al Franken to resign from the Senate was going to haunt her—even though that was a year and a half ago, and despite the fact that all the other senators in the race called for him to go too. Among primary voters and partisan media outlets that put a premium on purity, no one is letting go of her past pro-gun or anti-immigrant positions.”

“The media spotlight she gets in New York and Washington only makes it more shocking when insiders in those cities realize she’s largely unknown to almost everyone else.”

Politico: “Her bigger problem is fundraising. To secure a spot in the first double-header of Democratic primary debates in late June, candidates must meet two thresholds: surpassing 1 percent in three recognized national polls and collecting 65,000 unique campaign contributions. Gillibrand has checked the first box, however unimpressively. Yet the second mission remains unaccomplished.”

“With the debates closing in—and with even quixotic candidates such as self-help guru Marianne Williamson hitting the 65,000-donor mark—Gillibrand is under the gun. The Democratic National Committee is limiting the total number of participants to 20. She could (and likely will) qualify by meeting the polling threshold only. But given the late gusher of contenders entering the fray, her place on stage can be guaranteed only by growing her donor ranks—and quickly.”

“As a party, we should be 100 percent pro-choice, and it should be nonnegotiable. We should not settle for less, and if our party cannot support women’s basic human rights, their fundamental freedoms to make decisions about their bodies and their futures, then we are not the party of women.”

— Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), quoted by the Washington Post.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) “is shrugging off her state’s governor’s endorsement of former Vice President Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign over her own,” the AP reports.

Said Gillibrand: “Our governor can endorse whoever he likes, but I am the best candidate to defeat President Trump, and I will. The truth is, this presidential election will not be won on the endorsements of powerful people.”

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) “will deliver a fiery first speech as an official presidential candidate in New York City on Sunday, calling President Trump a ‘coward’ at the doorstep of one of his most famous properties,” Reuters reports.

“The location in front of Trump International Hotel – which she plans to call a ‘shrine to greed, division and vanity,’ according to excerpts from her prepared remarks – is intended to show voters that Gillibrand will attack Trump directly, in contrast to some Democratic rivals who have hesitated to focus on the Republican president early in the 2020 campaign.”

Gillibrand Will Say: “President Trump is tearing apart the moral fabric of our country. He demonizes the vulnerable and he punches down… Our President is a coward.”

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) defended her call for former Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) to resign from the Senate in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations, saying that she “stood up for women who came forward,” The Hill reports.

Said Gillibrand: “If there are a few Democratic powerful donors who are angry because I stood up for women who came forward with allegations of sexual harassment, that’s on them.”

She added: “I had a choice to make whether to stay silent or not, whether to say ‘it’s not OK with me,’ and I decided to say that.”

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand “formally launched her presidential bid on Sunday morning, announcing she will deliver her first major speech next week in front of Trump International Hotel in New York City,” Reuters reports.

“Gillibrand, 52, had already been campaigning in key states that hold early primary contests. She has struggled to see her polling numbers increase in the wake of her initial announcement, a benefit some of her other opponents enjoyed after starting their campaigns. Gillibrand remains at 1 percent in most public opinion polls of the Democratic primary.”