Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, and 2020 presidential candidate, says she will campaign for several GOP candidates, one day after announcing she was leaving the Democratic Party. File photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI |
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Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and 2020 presidential candidate has revealed she will hit the campaign trail for several GOP candidates, one day after announcing she was leaving the Democratic Party.
Gabbard, a former Democratic House representative for Hawaii, said Wednesday she will campaign for Republican New Hampshire Senate nominee Don Bolduc. She also endorsed Trump-backed Republican candidate Joe Kent, who is in a tight race for a southwestern Washington House seat.
On Tuesday, Gabbard announced in a video posted to social media that she was leaving the Democratic Party and urged "fellow common sense independent-minded Democrats" to do the same.
"I can no longer remain in today's Democratic Party. It's now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue and stoking anti-white racism," Gabbard said on the first episode of her new podcast, "The Tulsi Gabbard Show."
Gabbard went on to criticize the Democratic Party for its "open border" and national security policies, as she argued the party is moving our country "closer to nuclear war." She said democrats are "actively undermining our God-given freedoms," through hostility toward religious people and police.
"I believe in a government that is of the people, by the people and for the people," Gabbard said. "Unfortunately, today's Democratic Party does not. Instead, it stands for a government of, by and for the powerful elite."
Gabbard, who is an Iraq War veteran, was elected to Congress in 2012 as the first American Samoan and practicing Hindu. She sought the Democratic nomination for president in 2020, while choosing not to run for re-election in the House. Gabbard ended her presidential campaign in March of 2020 and endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden.
"President Biden campaigned on a message of unity, healing the partisan divide, bringing the country together," Gabbard said in Tuesday's video. "He just gave a big speech saying supporters of President Trump are the most extremist group in our country and a threat to our democracy. That's half the country," she argued.
While Gabbard announced plans to leave the Democratic Party, she has not indicated which party she will affiliate with moving forward.
