Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic presidential candidate who turned independent, officially announced she is joining the Republican Party at Donald Trump’s rally in North Carolina on Tuesday.
“I join the party of the people, the party of equality, the party founded to fight slavery in this country and end it. It is the party of common sense, the party of courage and strength to fight for peace. “This is a party led by a president who has,” Gabbard said. “You know, I’ve been a Democrat for over 20 years, and today’s Democratic Party is completely unrecognizable,” she continued. “If you look at Kamala Harris’ party, for example, she’s anti-liberal. She’s pro-censorship, she’s pro-open borders, she’s pro-war without even pretending to care about peace. There is.”
Gabbard, 43, becoming a Republican should come as no shock to anyone who has followed her career, especially in recent years. The former lawmaker from Hawaii has long made a name for himself by openly criticizing the Democratic Party and has been an ardent supporter of his predecessor. President Trump.
Her party change announcement comes after prominent Republicans, including former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter, former House Republican Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney, endorsed Harris in the 2024 election. Gabbard cited the Cheney family’s support for Harris as proof that the Democratic Party is one of the “warmongers.”
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The daughter of an educator and small business owner involved in local politics, Ms. Gabbard was elected to the Hawai’i State House as a Democrat in 2002, representing West Oahu’s 42nd District, becoming the youngest person ever to serve in the Hawaii State House of Representatives. He started his career as. She left politics in 2004 and served in the Army National Guard, serving in Iraq and Kuwait before returning and running for Honolulu City Council in 2010.
When Gabbard threw her hat into the ring in the Democratic primary for Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District seat in 2011, she was still a relative unknown and underdog. But the former Honolulu mayor, whose campaign centered on his vocal opposition to foreign wars during the Bush administration and his personal reversal of same-sex marriage, which he once opposed but now supports, After defeating five other challengers, including Ms. Gabbard, she quickly emerged as the Democratic Party’s “rising star,” as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called her. Then-President Barack Obama supported her candidacy for Congress, and she was invited to speak at the 2012 Democratic National Convention.
Gabbard rose quickly within the party after being elected to Congress in 2012 as the first Hindu, first American Samoan and first female veteran, along with Illinois’s Tammy Duckworth. In 2013, he was elected vice chair of the Democratic National Committee.
But Gabbard, known for her populist economics and pro-veteran, anti-interventionist politics, certainly did not toe the party line. She has often clashed with Democratic Party leadership for publicly criticizing Obama’s foreign policy, and during the 2016 presidential campaign the Democratic National Committee’s primary process was skewed in favor of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. criticized. In 2016, she resigned as DNC vice chair to support independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign, becoming a prominent supporter of him and delivering his nomination speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
After Trump’s victory in the 2016 general election, Gabbard said she had “candid and positive” talks with the president-elect and was rumored to be under consideration for a Cabinet position.
In 2019, Gabbard launched her presidential campaign and announced that she would not seek re-election to Congress. But she became the “most hated” candidate in the broad Democratic field, especially after the “incumbent” vote in Trump’s first impeachment trial. One of the standout moments of her short-lived campaign occurred during a primary debate in which she challenged then-California Sen. Kamala Harris’ record as a prosecutor. However, that was not enough to propel her candidacy, which never rose above single digits in the polls, and was suspended in March 2020, after which she endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden. She was not invited to speak at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.
Since leaving office in 2021, Gabbard has become an even more outspoken critic of Democrats, appearing frequently on Fox News and even serving as a guest host on Tucker Carlson’s show multiple times. She expressed support for Republican candidates and policies and spoke at the 2022 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). In October 2022, she announced that she was officially leaving the Democratic Party, which she accused of being “under the total control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by a vile wokeness.” She continued to support a number of Republican candidates in the 2022 midterm elections, including Trump’s fellow incumbent, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance.
Gabbard was speculated to be President Trump’s running mate earlier this year, and when asked about it on Fox News in March, she said: He is in a position to support President Trump. After formally endorsing Trump in August, Gabbard was selected to co-lead the Trump transition team with former independent candidate and Trump supporter Robert F. Kennedy Jr. It will set the priorities of the next government if elected.
When Trump took to the stage after Gabbard announced the new Republican on Tuesday, he called it a “huge honor” and exclaimed, “Wow, that was a surprise.”
