Kirsten Gillibrand Bio, Net Worth, Weight Loss Journey, Husband & Family Life

Quick Facts

Kirsten Gillibrand is a United States attorney who currently serves as the United States Senator for the state of New York. She was formerly U.S. Representative for New York until appointed as secretary of state leaving the New York senatorial seat empty. Kirsten was then appointed and sworn in by the New York governor and since then has been quite impressive with her performance in the Senate.

As a Democratic Party member and a junior US senator, she been a strong voice against sexual harassment in the military and is seen as a potential presidential candidate for her party.

Kirsten Gillibrand’s Bio

Kirsten Gillibrand was born Kirsten Elizabeth Rutnik, in Albany, New York, on on the 9th of December 1966. She was born to Douglas Paul Rutnik and Polly Edwina Noonan who are both attorneys. Her father also worked as a lobbyist and divorced her mother in the late 1980s.

She has an older brother named Douglas Rutnik and a younger sister named Erin Rutnik Tschantret. Interestingly, she has a mixture of English, Austrian, Scottish, German, and Irish ancestry. In addition, her grandmother was also a political heavyweight in Albany.

In 1984, she finished from the all women’s private Emma Willard School, Troy, New York and then began schooling at Dartmouth College. Having met all requirement needed in college, she graduated magna cum laude in 1988. She then moved on to intern at the Republican U.S. Senator Alfonse D’Amato’s Albany office while she received her J.D. from UCLA School of Law.

Kirsten Gillibrand wrote and passed the bar exam in 1991. Fortunately, for her that same year, she became an associate with Davis Polk and Wardwell, a law firm based in Manhattan.

Career

At Davis Polk, she became the defense attorney for Philip Morris during the major litigation including civil lawsuits and civil racketeering proves. She did so well that she became a senior associate while working on the case. During that period, Kirsten got involved with a National Democratic Committee program which was a women’s leadership forum which she would later lead. This was where she met Hilary Clinton for the first time.

Soon enough, she left Davis Polk to serve as Special Counsel to Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Andrew Cuomo, during Clinton’s administration. Kirsten then began working on Hillary Clinton’s year 2000 U.S. Senate campaign where she focused on reaching out to young women and encouraging them to join the campaign.

During this time, Kirsten Gillibrand and Hilary’s bond grew stronger to the point that Hilary became her mentor. In 2006, she began her own campaign for the US Representative for New York’s 20th congressional district and with the support of Bill and Hilary Clinton as well as some other democrat heavyweights, she won the election. Her position was also retained in 2008 after a fierce battle with the Republican party.

She became the first member of the Congress to publish her entire official schedule. Also, she supported civil unions for same-sex couples and joined a group of moderate to conservative Democrats called the “Bluedog Coalition.” She also served on several subcommittees on agriculture and armed services. In 2009, after Hilary Clinton left the seat as junior representative, Kirsten was appointed in her place, an appointment which came as a sort of surprise as no one expected her to be the one to be chosen.

She was sworn in on the 26th of January 2009 and became the youngest senator of the 111th Congress. By 2010, she had to defend her position in an election since she came in based on appointment but the heavyweights of her party chose to back her up and at the end, she won the elections and retained her seat.

In 2012, she ran again for her office and won again carrying all but two counties in New York. Her voting margin made her the statewide candidate with the largest voting margin in New York’s history. After her win, she moved from the moderate and conservative side to become a more liberal and progressive senator. In 2018, she announced that she intended retaining her office.

Net Worth

Kirsten earns a good sum as the author of the book, Off the Sidelines: Raise Your Voice, Change the World. She also found the website she named, offthesidelines.org. In addition, being that she is a strong supporter of female equality and government transparency she gets paid to talk on various platforms. With all these paired with her senatorial earnings, Kirsten Gillibrand is worth over $500,000.

Weight Loss Journey

Despite Kirsten’s growing political appeal to the society, she somehow lacked it in physical appearance. She was known to be slightly overweight. This was even used against her by her fellow Congressmen and women who would usually make certain remarks or jests about her looks. After a while, Kirsten began to see her weight as a serious challenge and began seeking advice.

She then came up with a workout plan and kept a food journal. Part of her work out plan was to run a few miles almost every day and also she began playing squash and table tennis, the two games she loved playing while in college. She then joined the congressional women’s softball team and in a few months, she lost a staggering 40 pounds and has worked hard to keep it that way. She looks healthier and happier so far and has since published her memoirs on her work out plans and diet.

Husband And Family

Kirsten met Jonathan Gillibrand, a British citizen and a venture capitalist, on a blind date and just like that, a spark was ignited. Without much ado, the pair set a date and tied the knot in 2001, in a Catholic church in Manhattan. Together as a couple, they have two cute sons, Theodore Gillibrand born in 2003 and Henry Gillibrand born in 2008. As a family, they all live in Brunswick.

Also Read: Top 10 Richest People in the world with full biography and details.