All Over Albany

Kirsten Gillibrand en Vogue

The new issue of Vogue includes a feature about Kirsten Gillibrand in which the author, Jonathan Van Meter, visits the Senator at her home in Brunswick*, eats lunch with her in Troy, and attends events with her around the state. (It sounds like the visit was back in August.) A clip:

"It's a heavy feeling being in Washington," she says. "There are so many important issues at risk. You're in a fighting stance every day. Because the stuff that comes over Twitter is so horrible. The attack on the transgender troops: disgusting, disgraceful, outrageous. It's just endless. And then you try to do your day job of finding good bipartisan work across the aisle... You're doing both all the time. I guess I would describe it as intense. Everything is very intense."

Gillibrand's intensity is in her news and radio interviews, her impromptu press conference on the Capitol steps, her speeches at protests, her Twitter feed. She is exceedingly direct and genuine for a politician, especially when speaking about sexual assault in the military, say, or paid family leave, both core issues for her. And she has a populist streak--she has argued for single-payer health care for a decade--that puts her closer to Bernie Sanders than to Clinton. Of course, she's a quarter-century younger than Bernie and a more likable proposition altogether. "It's flattering," she says when I point out that she's made every Democratic shortlist for 2020. Is the idea of higher office something she thinks about? "I'm entirely focused on 2018. Some of the worst ideas Trump has can be better blocked if we have a majority in the House or Senate or both."

The piece -- with photos by Annie Leibovitz -- checks most of the KG profile boxes, among them: her potential as a presidential candidate, the issues she's focused on while in office (and how they've changed), her work ethic in the Senate and willingness to engage Republicans, a mention of her grandmother.

* Though its location is tagged as Troy in the article.