A buddy from Hawaii made an interesting comment. Gillibrand is worried that Tulsi Gabbard will become the female candidate for 2020.
Despite having announced (May 1017)that she is not runn8ng for POTUS in 2020, Gillibrand saw her chance and threw Hillary and Franken overboard (probably with the approval of Wall Street, which was horrified that Trump won). I think she would be a stronger candidate than Hillary, but if Bernie ran as an independent that would be a big problem for her.