Since Donald Trump was elected president, there's been an undeniable wave of resistance throughout the United States — including Washington D.C., where several members of Congress have been consistently outspoken against the Trump administration's agenda. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) is one of those people.
Gillibrand regularly speaks about issues like Trump's transgender military ban, Betsy DeVos's review of campus assault policies, and Trump's move to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Of course, she doesn't just talk about important issues; as a senator, Gillibrand constantly works to block potentially harmful legislation (or presidential orders like the trans military ban, in response to which she and Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) just introduced a new amendment) that would hurt millions; and to enact laws that will help Americans, such as the FAMILY Act, Bernie Sanders' Medicare for All bill, and the Campus Accountability & Safety Act for enhanced protections of campus sexual assault survivors.
In fact, helping people is Gillibrand's driving force, and she's made it clear she believes that should be the case for all politicians. “[W]e're here to help people, and if we're not helping people, we should go the f*ck home,” she said in a New York magazine profile published in April 2017. In the same interview, Gillibrand also pointed out that she believes women make better legislators than men because “our disposition is to help.” So she's doing her part to help more women get to where she is with her political action committee (PAC), Off The Sidelines, which she formed to encourage women to have their voices heard and even run for office.
And Gillibrand's dedication to her constituents, and all Americans, didn't start with Trump's presidency. In her eight years as a senator, she's fought for many important causes, like the repeal of the military's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” and gun control.
Before taking her seat as a U.S. senator in 2009, Gillibrand, a graduate of Dartmouth College and UCLA School of Law, worked as an attorney in New York City and served as Special Counsel to the United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Andrew Cuomo (now the New York state governor). But despite her long-running, successful career, Gillibrand — like most of us — faced challenges and uncertainty as she navigated adulthood. We asked her to take us back in time to when she was just 18 years old and share the advice she'd like to give her younger self. See what she had to say in the video above.
Related: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand: “If We’re Not Helping People, We Should Go the F*ck Home”
