Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand takes prominent fundraising post for Senate Democrats

WASHINGTON — Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s first big step into politics came more than two decades ago when Hillary Clinton asked her to raise money from other young women for Clinton's 2000 campaign for U.S. Senate from New York.

Gillibrand threw herself into the task and raised more than her goal of $50,000 at an event at the Russian Tea Room in New York City, she wrote in her book "Off the Sidelines," which aimed to encourage women to get involved in politics and run for office.

"When you want to be taken seriously in politics, you have to prove you can deliver, often financially," Gillibrand advised in her book.

Now, the current senator from New York, who just won her third full term in November, has taken her own advice.

Late last year Gillibrand declared she wanted to chair the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the party's fundraising arm, for the 2026 election cycle. On Monday, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) made her appointment to the post official.

Gillibrand takes the post at a key moment, as President-elect Donald Trump retakes office with majorities in both houses of Congress. Funding races in competitive states will be key to winning back the Senate. 

"Sen. Schumer and I cannot deliver all the bipartisan, common sense legislation and funding that we do when we have control of the Senate chamber," Gillibrand said Wednesday when asked by Newsday why she wanted the difficult fundraising job.

"I want to do everything I can do to help win back that majority," Gillibrand said on a call with reporters.

Twenty Republicans and 13 Democrats are up for reelection to the Senate in 2026. But it will not be particularly easy for Democrats to win back control from Republicans, who now have a majority of 57 members in the 100-seat Senate.

"It's not particularly favorable to Democrats," Gillibrand conceded, noting that a majority of the Republican senators come from deep red states.

But Gillibrand added, "We have opportunities, particularly this cycle and next cycle."

Competitive races?

She cited Sen. Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a state that just elected a Democratic governor. And Sen. Mitch McConnell’s retirement at the end of this session will create an open seat in Kentucky, which also has a Democratic governor.

Gillibrand said she sees Maine as a potential opportunity, especially if its moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins also retires.

"I'm also trying to look at harder-to-win places like Ohio, to the extent we can get the best candidate," she said. "That seat was held by Sherrod Brown, so it's possible to have a Democrat win that."

Republican JD Vance now occupies the seat but will leave it to become vice president on Jan. 20. An appointee will serve for the next two years, and an election will be held in 2026.

Gillibrand added, "And then our perennial favorites are Texas and Florida, which are very hard to win for Democrats. But I do think it's worth the fight."

Asked how much she needs to raise over the next two years, Gillibrand said, "Whatever it takes, but I think it's in the hundreds of millions of dollars."

Financial needs

The committee that she will lead — led at one time by Schumer and most recently by Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan — raised $296.8 million in the last two years for Democrats running for the Senate in the 2024 election.

Gillibrand brings skills to the job that will help her, said Lawrence Levy, a political analyst and executive dean of Hofstra University’s National Center for Suburban Studies.

"This job does not necessarily require her to be able to move a room like Michelle Obama," Levy said. "It requires her to be able to rally people like that to the cause, to have command of the needs of dozens of incumbents and challengers, and an ability to master the nuances of regions and sub regions in specific states that are critical."

In her four elections for the Senate, Gillibrand raised $64 million for campaigns in which she never faced a well-financed and well-known candidate.

She raised millions more in her two leadership PACs, which raise money for other candidates. Off the Sidelines PAC, formed in 2012, helped fund campaigns of women candidates, and Empire PAC, created in 2010, raised money for House and Senate candidates in New York and other states. She shut down the Empire PAC in 2019.