When it comes to making a “mark in her chosen profession,” Gillibrand has done it: A Dartmouth-educated former attorney, she’s climbed the ranks from representing a district in New York state with “more cows than Democrats,” as she says in every stump speech, to becoming a high-profile senator and Democratic star. During her Senate tenure, she’s put issues such as sexual assault in the military and paid family leave on the legislative map, and campaigned for the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Since Donald Trump was elected president in November 2016, she has emerged as a major force for women as one of his most vocal critics, voting against more of his cabinet nominees than any of her colleagues and sometimes even breaking ranks to stick up for women when it wasn’t politically expedient, like when she led the call for the ouster of former senator Al Franken, who was accused of sexual harassment . Now, she’s seized the moment to speak up for women’s rights and is trying to spin her scrappy breakout into a real chance of becoming the most powerful person in the world. Whether she can rally “the support of many people” is the question surrounding her campaign for president.