Kirsten Gillibrand Biography, Life, Interesting Facts

Kirsten Gillibrand is an American politician and attorney born on December 9, 1966, in Albany, New York, U.S. She is the incumbent United States Senator from New York and serving since January 2009. She was also a member of the U.S House of Representatives from New York’s 20th District from January 3, 2007, to January 26, 2009. She is an active member of the Democratic Party and has been on the front line to address issues like sexual assault and sexual harassment in the military.

Early Life

Kirsten Gillibrand was born Kirsten Elizabeth Rutnik to attorneys Douglas Paul Rutnik and Polly Edwina Noonan. She was born in Albany, New York, United States on December 9, 1966. Her parents divorced years later in the 1980s. She went to Emma Willard School an all-girls private school in Troy, New York and graduated in 1984. She then attended Dartmouth College before moving to Beijing and Taiwan where she majored in Asian studies. She graduated with magna cum laude in 1988 while undertaking her studies in Beijing.

Career

Kirsten Gillibrand started working as an associate at a law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell in Manhattan in 1991. She later worked as a clerk to Judge Roger Miner at the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Albany in 1992. In 1999, she became actively involved in Hillary Clinton’s US Senate campaigns encouraging women to back up Clinton in the 2000 elections. In 2001 she started working at Boies, Schiller & Flexner in Manhattan before transferring to the firm’s office in Albany in 2002. In 2005 after leaving Boies, she began her campaigns for the 2006 Congress seat.

In 2006, Kirsten Gillibrand ran for the New York's 20th congressional district against her Republican opponent and three-term incumbent John E. Sweeney. She was running on a Democratic Party ticket with support from her close ally and mentor Hillary Clinton. On November 5, 2006, she gained victory defeating Sweeney by 53% of the total votes cast.

In 2008, she won her bid for re-election against Sandy Treadwell and began engaging in progressive reforms including voting against the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, restricting illegal immigrants from having driving licenses and was in favor of laws that will not permit federal funds from immigrant sanctuary cities.

Kirsten Gillibrand was also in full support of same-sex marriages and relationships. She also served in a number of committees within the House of Representatives including Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy, and Research, Subcommittee on Horticulture,  and Organic Agriculture, Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry as chairperson, Subcommittee on Seapower and Expeditionary Forces and Subcommittee on Terrorism and Unconventional Threats.

In November 2010, she won the Senate elections and again ran for the same seat in November 2012. She also won the 2012 elections by 72% of the votes to serve for six subsequent terms. She served in the following committees while in the Senate Subcommittee on Domestic and Foreign Marketing, Inspection, and Plant and Animal Health as Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Energy, Science and Technology, Subcommittee on Hunger, Nutrition and Family Farms, Subcommittee on Personnel, Subcommittee on Airland, Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, Subcommittee on Green Jobs and the New Economy, Subcommittee on Oversight and Subcommittee on Superfund, Toxics and Environmental Health.

Personal Life

Kirsten Gillibrand is married to Jonathan Gillibrand who she met on a blind date and together has two sons Theodore born in 2003 and Henry born in 2008. She lives with her husband and two children in Brunswick. She is currently fifty one years old and has published a book titled ‘Off the Sidelines: Raise Your Voice, Change the World’ (2014).