2020 presidential candidate Kirsten Gillibrand praised Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign against President Trump, pointing to how she won the popular vote even though she lost the general election.
“I do think all of us who are running, particularly the women candidates, are standing on Hillary’s shoulders right now,” she said.
“She did achieve 65 million cracks in the highest and hardest crack ceiling, and she actually won the popular vote, so she did a lot right,” Gillibrand said. “To win the popular vote by 3 million votes just shows she ran a strong campaign, and she certainly in my opinion was the most qualified, capable person ever to run for president ever.”
“So I loved what she put out there in terms of herself and how much confidence she had and how much she believed in herself and always had a strong vision for America,” she said.
Gillibrand worked on Clinton’s Senate campaign and went on to fill her Senate seat in New York.
Trump received 62,985,106 votes, or 45.9% of the vote, in 2016. Clinton received 65,853,625 votes, or 48%, according to the New York Times. Trump won the election by getting 306 electoral college votes, well over the 270 needed, while Clinton got 232.
Much of Trump’s success came from winning battleground states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan — states Clinton herself largely ignored in the contest.
