BUFFALO, N.Y. — Despite her promise to New York voters that she wouldn't, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is running for president.
She kicked off her campaign Wednesday more than four hours down the Thruway in Troy, New York.
"If you're asking me to make an absolutely pledge as to whether I'll be running for president, I'm not going to make that pledge."
Gillibrand, on the other hand, said this just before voters re-elected her.
"Just want to make this clear, you're saying you will not get out of the race. You will not run for president. You will serve your six years?"
She answered: "I will serve my six-year term, OK."
It's clear Gillibrand has gone back on her word.
At her campaign kickoff event Wednesday near Albany, she tried to explain the change.
"I believe the urgency of this moment now is that we have to take on President Trump, and what he's doing. I believe he's literally ripping apart the fabric of this country -- the moral fabric, and you've got to restore that decency and our leadership in the world, and so that's why I feel so called right now on to take on that battle."
She undoubtedly felt that way "before" making that pledge during the debate.
Now New Yorkers who re-elected her thinking she would focus on representing them will likely take a back seat to her presidential ambitions.