In November 2010, Kirsten was elected to the U.S. Senate with 62% of the vote. She was first appointed to the U.S. Senate in January 2009 to fill Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s seat and before that was twice elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from New York’s 20th congressional district. She is now up for re-election to the U.S. Senate in 2012.

Kirsten serves on the Environment and Public Works Committee, the Agriculture Committee, the Special Committee on Aging, and the Armed Services Committee. She is the founder of the Congressional High-Tech Caucus and serves on the Green Jobs & the New Economy Subcommittee of Environment and Public Works.

Although not in the Senate long, Kirsten has already been a leader on a number of pressing causes including the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” delivering jobs to NY families, fighting for women’s rights and family issues, introducing cyber security legislation, and most recently, was the lead sponsor of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010 (9/11 Health Bill).