Gore Schiff was born in Nashville, Tennessee and grew up both there as well as in Washington D.C.. She graduated from National Cathedral School in 1991. She received her B.A. in history and literature in 1995 from Harvard University and J.D. from Columbia Law School in 2000. She interned as a journalist for WREG-TV and The Times-Picayune. She later wrote for Slate and was an attorney with a law firm in New York.

On July 12, 1997 she married Andrew Newman Schiff, a doctor, in Washington D.C. Andrew is a descendant of Jacob Schiff. They have three children together: Wyatt Gore Schiff, (born July 4, 1999 in New York City) Anna Hunger Schiff, (born August 23, 2001 in New York City) and Oscar Aitcheson Schiff (born in 2006). They currently live in New York City. As of June 9, 2010, she and husband Andrew are separated.

2000 campaign and book

Gore Schiff worked on her father's campaign during the 2000 presidential campaign as Youth Outreach Chair. Together with her father's former Harvard roommate Tommy Lee Jones, she officially nominated Gore as the presidential candidate during the 2000 Democratic Convention in Los Angeles. She also introduced her father during the launching of his campaign.

In 2006, she published Nine Women Who Shaped Modern America, a book written in reaction to the results of the 2000 campaign. Gore Schiff stated: "I wanted to turn all that frustration and sadness into something positive." The nine women profiled in the text are: Ida Wells-Barnett, Mary Harris "Mother" Jones, Alice Hamilton, Frances Perkins, Virginia Durr, Septima Clark, Dolores Huerta, Helen Rodriguez-Trias, and Gretchen Buchenholz.