Hello, Madam President: Tulsi Gabbard

Personal Background:

Tulsi Gabbard was born on April 12, 1981, in Leloaloa, American Samoa. Her father is Hawaii state senator Mike Gabbard, and her mother Carol Gabbard is a former Hawaii Board of Education member. Tulsi Gabbard attended Hawaii Pacific University where she graduated with a bachelor of science degree in business administration in 2009.

Tulsi Gabbard has a notable military background: She voluntarily deployed in 2004 and served with a field medical unit in Iraq. She graduated in 2007 from the Accelerated Officer Candidate School at the Alabama Military Academy, making her the first woman in the Academy’s 50-year history to earn the title of the distinguished honour graduate. In 2015, Gabbard was promoted by the Hawaii Army National Guard from captain to major.

Gabbard is the first American Samoan Congresswoman. In 2002, she was elected in the Hawaii State House to represent West Oahu, which made her the youngest woman ever to be elected to state legislature. She was elected to the Honolulu City Council in 2010 and as vice chair of the Democratic National Committee in 2013. She announced her presidential candidacy on January 11, 2019.

Voting Records and Major Bills Sponsored:

Rep. Gabbard currently serves on the following committees: 

House Committee on Armed Services
Member, Subcommittee on Intelligence, Emerging Threats and Capabilities
Member, Subcommittee on Readiness
House Committee on Financial Services

Rep. Gabbard currently holds the following ratings by external groups:

Main Goals & Platforms:

Tulsi Gabbard is often viewed as someone who holds Sanderesque stances. For instance, she has talked about lessening the part money plays in politics as well as in military presence in the Middle East. On a similar note as Senator Sanders on the issue of education, she wants to rid community colleges of tuition fees and make public universities tuition-free for families who make $125,000 or less a year. As for social issues, Gabbard has a 100% voting record with Planned Parenthood and NARAL and thus believes in abortion rights. She also supports LGBT rights and marriage equality and has sponsored numerous bills such as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, the Respect for Marriage Act, the Healthy Families Act, the Equality Act and the Safe Schools Improvement Act. Gabbard supports Medicare For All and doesn’t want to remove private insurance. As for environmental issues, despite not having stated a position on the Green New Deal, she has proposed a deal in 2017 that aims to transition to 100% renewable energy to generate electricity by 2035.

Criticisms:

Some of the biggest controversies that concern Gabbard are her history of support for a few questionable leaders. She met with Syrian president President Bashar al-Assad in January 2017, who uses chemical weapons against civilians, and is responsible for the killing of 94% of those who have died in Syria since 2011. She has openly said not to regret the meeting, having stated that: “I have seen this cost of war firsthand, which is why I fight so hard for peace. And that’s the reality of the situation that we’re facing here. It’s why I have urged and continue to urge President Trump to meet with people like Kim Jong Un in North Korea because we understand what’s at stake here. The only alternative to having these kinds of conversations is more war.” She also deemed herself “skeptical” that the Assad regime is behind chemical weapons attacks in Syria.

She’s befriended Narendra Modi of India, who is to a great degree responsible for the bloody 2002 anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat where he was chief minister and gave him the Bhagavad Gita on which she’d sworn her oath of office as a gift.

In 2015, two years after he directed the worst mass killing of protesters in modern history, Gabbard showed support for General Abdel Fattah el Sisi, the Egyptian dictator, and said to think he “has shown great courage and leadership in taking on this extreme Islamist ideology.”

In the past, Gabbard has been known to hold anti-LGBTQ views: she’d previously worked for an anti-gay-rights organisation in Hawaii led by her father. Since then, she has expressed her regret for her actions, acknowledged them and released an apology tape. Although she has been showing support for the LGBTQ community, her homophobic past hasn’t been forgotten and will be a stain she’ll have to carry during her campaign.

Gabbard voted in 2015 for additional restrictions on refugees entering the US from Syria and Iraq. She also has shown a fondness for the phrase “radical Islam”. She has said to understand that most Muslims are not extremists, but stood with Republicans in criticising Clinton and Barack Obama for not employing the phrase, explaining that “it’s important that you identify your enemy”.

Popularity & Electability:

Gabbard’s chances to win the elections are currently very grim, as she currently polls at 2%. Due to her past controversies, many are skeptical of Gabbard and her self-proclaimed ideological shift towards a more progressive one. It is more than fair to say that her actions have been paradoxical of the Democrats’. However, according to the Civil Beat Poll, she is Hawaii’s most popular politician (with 61%), a rate that has increased since a dip due to her meeting with Assad. She has the support of Bernie Sanders and is endorsed by various liberal-friendly groups.

Featured Image Via Sgt. 1st Class Jim Greenhill