WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand announced that she is ending her campaign for President after failing to meet the required numbers of unique donors. She also failed to win enough poll numbers, the main parameters to qualify for the September primary debate in Houston.
The 52-year-old New York senator announced her decision to quit the presidential race in an online video Wednesday.
'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,' she said.
'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. To our supporters: Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. Now, let's go beat Donald Trump and win back the Senate,' she wrote on Twitter.
Kirsten needed 130,000 individual donors who donate to her election campaign fund to stay in the next round of Democratic debates. August 28 was is the deadline to qualify, and she was close to the 130K donors mark. Kirsten was apparently hopeful of getting there at the last minute.
Just hours before announcing her withdrawal, she wrote on Twitter: 'It's true: This election is about defeating Trump. For me, it's also about lifting up voices and issues that have been left out of our politics since long before Trump. That's why I'm running, and I'll take that fight to the debates. Help me get there.'
Gillibrand, who fought for LGBTQ rights in her entire career, and an outspoken supporter for the MeToo movement, had claimed to have the most comprehensive LGBTQ rights agenda among the 2020 presidential candidates.
Gillibrand entered the US Congress in 2007, toppling an incumbent Republican in a conservative stronghold in the U.S. House election. She was nominated to the Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton, who was tapped to be U.S. secretary of state, in 2009.
Gillibrand won a special election in 2010 to retain the Senate seat, and was re-elected to full terms in 2012 and 2018.
With Gillibrand's exit, the number of Democrat aspirants left in the field has reduced to 20.
No woman has won the U.S. presidency, and this time there is a record number of women in the bid for Democratic Party nomination. They are Kamala Harris, Tulsi Gabbard, Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren.
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