Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.) said in an interview the fact Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in 2016 proved she "ran a strong campaign."
Gillibrand, who has long counted Clinton as a political mentor, told GirlBoss Radio in an interview posted Wednesday that she and the other female 2020 candidates in particular had Clinton to thank for her example.
"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. 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."
Clinton won California and New York combined by roughly six million votes—two heavily blue states that candidates have ignored during general elections for decades—while losing the rest of the country by about three million votes to Donald Trump. He won the critical swing states of Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Florida to capture the election.
President Barack Obama won all six of those states in his races in 2008 and 2012. Clinton took sharp criticism for her decision to not campaign in Wisconsin or Michigan during the general election, which most prognosticators expected to vote Democratic again.
Gillibrand said Clinton's campaign gave her confidence in her own campaign platform, which has focused heavily on abortion but also includes conventionally liberal programs like debt-free college. Her campaign has struggled to gain attention and fundraising in the crowded 2020 field, despite her lofty platform.
Gillibrand has longtime ties to the Clintons and worked on Hillary Clinton's 2000 U.S. Senate campaign. Former president Bill Clinton campaigned for her when she was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2006. In 2017, she said President Clinton should have resigned at the time over his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.