Kirsten Gillibrand is fast becoming the hottest ticket on the Washington gala circuit, with the junior senator from New York increasingly the "it guest" for progressive events around town,
Politico reported.
With heavyweight speaker Hillary Clinton off on her own campaign trail, it's the ever-popular Gillibrand who has stepped up to claim her spotlight, Politico said, noting her hard work and effectiveness in raising money for Democrats.
Said one Washington event-planner to Politico: "Gillibrand has a lot of name recognition on her own, and she’s who people actually want to meet. It really comes down to who guests will like and relate with, who they will want sitting at their table.”
While Gillibrand is set to helm the Center for American Progress' 2015 Progressive Party gala along with Vice President Joe Biden next Thursday, her calendar is filled up to the max before then with so many events that Politico describes it as "a whirlwind."
She's spending Thursday night at the home of Japanese Ambassador Kenichiro Sasae and his wife, Nobuko, where she'll accept the DC Volunteer Lawyers Project’s Champion of Justice Award for her work on domestic violence issues. She'll then pivot to a Friday morning event dubbed "A Conversation with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand" at "Know Your Value," a women’s empowerment convention that's being held by NBC Universal and MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski, a "Morning Joe" co-host.
Gillibrand returns home to New York for the weekend, but there is little time to relax as she'll deliver the commencement address at a SUNY college on Long Island.
When she returns to Washington, she's back up on Tuesday for a stint anchoring a feminist-inspired high school theatrical production, "SLUT: The Play," at the Warner Theatre, Politico said, a production that concerns the impact of what is described as "slut shaming" and sexual double standards.
Gillibrand, who has aligned herself as a member of the "blue dog" faction, also has continued to champion a message of just how important it is for a woman to become president in 2016, the
National Journal said, adding that if Clinton does not emerge a winner, Gillibrand may be leaving open her own window for a future White House bid.
She has also penned a memoir, "Off the Sidelines: Raise Your Voice, Change the World," due out in September that, she said, is to inspire other women to take the lead in politics,
The Washington Post reported.
Many have predicted her political ambition runs deeper than the Senate.
"If Hillary Clinton doesn’t run in 2016, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Kirsten Gillibrand jump in," said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, to the Post. "Gillibrand seems to have the ambition to do it."