The 2020 Presidential election has brought forward multiple female congresswomen as potential candidates in the race. The candidates include: Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Representative Tulsi Gabbard, Senator Kamala Harris and Senator Elizabeth Warren.
Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) – Gabbard is an Army national guard veteran and congresswoman from Hawaii.
She voluntarily served two tours in Iraq in 2004 and again in 2009 when she was voluntarily deployed to Kuwait. Gabbard has since voiced her opposition to American military intervention.
In 2015, Gabbard called for more presidential debates during the 2016 Presidential election, according to The New York Times. This would allow the American public to receive more transparency from Presidential candidates before voting.
She has faced some controversy for her anti-LGBTQ stances and meeting with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in 2017.
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York) – Sen. Gillibrand announced her formation of a presidential exploratory committee, making her the second senator to make her candidacy public.
The announcement was made on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Jan. 15, 2019.
Gillibrand held office as a congresswoman for New York’s 20th congressional district from 2006 to 2009 until she was appointed by New York Governor David Paterson to fill Hillary Clinton’s vacant Senate seat.
She has promoted universal healthcare and paid family leave. She helped repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in 2010 and called on Congress to change how sexual assaults are handled in the military, according to Vox.
Kamala Harris (D-California) – Harris, a first-term senator, has established herself as one of the President Trump’s toughest critics.
Her experience as California’s attorney general has impacted her style and approach to policy development and criticism of elected officials. She interrogated the Trump administration appointees and officials such as Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanagh during Senate hearings, according to Reuters.
During her 2020 launch campaign in Oakland on Jan. 27, 2019, she told the crowd that her whole life she has only had one client, “the people.”
She has endorsed affordable and accessible Medicare and has proposed a large middle-class tax cut.
Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) – Sen. Warren was the first democratic presidential candidate to announce the formation of an exploratory committee on New Year’s Eve.
This committee allows potential presidential candidates to determine if they should run. Warren has held rallies in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. During these stops, she has spoken openly about her past, growing up in poverty in Oklahoma.
Warren also addressed climate change and the economy. Warren has called out big banks for their roles in defrauding the American public during her Senate career. She is in favor of abolishing I.C.E and making health insurance more affordable.