U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., speaks to reporters in support of professor Christine Blasey Ford during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., last month.
U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., speaks to reporters in support of professor Christine Blasey Ford during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., last month. Credit: AP file


U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York will campaign with Democratic gubernatorial nominee Molly Kelly on Thursday.

Kelly’s campaign said Tuesday that Gillibrand – who’s the lead sponsor of a paid family leave bill in the Senate – will team up with Kelly to spotlight how paid family and medical leave will benefit people and small businesses in New Hampshire.

The trip is sparking more 2020 speculation about Gillibrand, who’s considered a potential Democratic White House hopeful.

Gillibrand – dubbed by 60 Minutes as the “#MeToo senator” for her work fighting for women’s issues revolving around sexual harassment and assault – has spent much of the year crisscrossing the country working to help elect female candidates.

Thursday’s visit will be Gillibrand’s first campaign stop this year in either Iowa, New Hampshire, or South Carolina, the first three states to vote in presidential primary and caucus calendar. She did make a quick stop in New Hampshire in June to attend a Dartmouth College Class of 1988 reunion.

Gillibrand, who’s up for re-election next month for her Senate seat representing New York, also spent the year fighting for popular economic proposals.

Gillibrand took to Twitter on Wednesday to spotlight her trip to New Hampshire.

“This country would look different if more women held office. We wouldn’t be denied equal pay and paid family leave. We wouldn’t be fighting to protect our reproductive rights,” she wrote. “That’s why I’m going to NH to campaign with @NHMollyKelly, who will fight for families and our future.”

Gillibrand and Kelly are scheduled to visit a small business to highlight paid family and medical leave. Later, the two will speak to Democratic campaign volunteers in Concord, according to the Kelly campaign.

Kelly has made paid family and medical leave a major issue in her campaign against first-term Republican Gov. Chris Sununu. She was in Portsmouth on Tuesday to highlight the deep differences between her and Sununu over a high-profile paid family and medical leave bill.

“As governor, I will make paid family and medical leave a reality,” vowed the former five-term state senator from Harrisville.

The Kelly campaign seems to be banking on paid family and medical leave as an effective campaign issue. The Portsmouth stop was the second event in a week where she discussed the issue. And Kelly’s first general election television commercial titled “Families,” which hit the airwaves a week and a half ago, features workers and a widow who explain why the program would help them.

Kelly supports a state House of Representatives bill which passed the GOP majority chamber three times earlier this year. The legislation would have created a state-run program, available to all private-sector employees, to allow for up to six weeks of paid leave for pregnancies, illnesses and other qualifying conditions. Participating employees would pay in less than 1 percent of their wages. The program would be administered by the state Department of Employment Security and is expected to cost about $14.5 million to set up.

After the threat of a veto from Sununu, the Republican-dominated state Senate voted down the measure.

“I believe it’s a win-win, and will improve the lives of the people,” Kelly emphasized.

Speaking with reporters last week, Sununu once again took aim at the measure Kelly supports.

“I did oppose their plan because it was a terrible idea for New Hampshire. It was essentially an income tax and any leader of the state has to stand against that, and come up with better solutions, creative solutions, voluntary plans that really work for the people,” the governor said.

And Sununu vowed he’ll make passing a voluntary paid family leave plan a priority in his second term.

Kelly disagreed with Sununu’s description of the plan, claiming that “just about everything I find that Republicans disagree with or won’t support, they say it is an income tax. I think that’s a political scare tactic.”