ORLANDO, Fla. — “Aloha,” former Hawaii Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard said when she took the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference Ronald Reagan Dinner on Friday.
“Aloha,” the crowd of top conservative donors and sponsors responded in a friendly manner. “You’re making me feel right at home,” Gabbard said.
It is unusual for a Democrat to be a top speaker at the annual gathering of thousands of staunch conservatives. But Gabbard, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, got a warm reception at the event’s premier event for top sponsors and highlighted the conference’s main theme of railing against “woke” culture and “cancel culture.”
“We have too many people in positions of power whose foremost responsibility is to protect our freedoms and uphold our God-given rights, and yet they are the ones who are actually trying to take these rights away from us,” Gabbard said. “This is the biggest threat to our country. It is not coming from some foreign country — it is coming from power elites here at home and their co-conspirators in the mainstream media and the security state who are working to undermine our freedoms.”
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Just over six years ago, Gabbard was a rising star in the Democratic Party and was vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee. She resigned from her position in 2016 to endorse Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’s presidential bid and then ran for president herself in the 2020 cycle. Her independent streak and foreign policy criticism kept her on the outskirts of power but allowed her to develop a cult following. Many of those admirers were Republicans and conservatives.
“I’m not sure why they chose the dinner. I don’t know the politics of that,” said Saul Anuzis, president of the 60 Plus Association and former Michigan state Republican Party chairman, who has been attending CPAC since 1979. “But I would say that she represents a very large constituency in America, which is disenfranchised Democrats who are kind of more moderate to independent, and they do feel the party’s gone too far. … That’s going to be part of our constituency.”
Others, who did not wish to be named, expressed annoyance and even anger at CPAC giving a Democrat with a measly 7.63% lifetime American Conservative Union voting record rating such a leading platform.
Gabbard said she and Matt Schlapp, president of the American Conservative Union, knew that giving her such a slot would cause controversy.
Conservative commentator Glenn Beck, the other speaker at the dinner, opened his speech telling the crowd that he was there “to see Tulsi.”
“How refreshing it is to be able to have an open conversation,” Beck said. “I’m supposed to hate her. She’s supposed to hate me. We’re not supposed to talk. This is ridiculous.”
Despite being a Democrat, large swathes of her speech were indistinguishable from those of prominent Republicans at the conference. In her 25 minutes of remarks, Gabbard praised “amazing parents” who are “standing in the trenches standing up and fighting for their kids,” as well as special counsel John Durham’s investigation into the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation.
It is not unheard of for strange ideological bedfellows to be featured at key conferences. Former Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich spoke at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.
Many of those at the CPAC, particularly younger people, were unabashed fans — and hopeful that she would switch partisan allegiances.
“She’s got a lot of views that line up with us. … I wish she would come join us in the Republican Party,” said Joshua Devries, a student at Grand Valley State University.
“I’m really happy that Tulsi Gabbard is speaking here today,” said Stephen Belford of the University of Albany College Republicans. “It’s important to have people who are like-minded in the idea of personal liberty and also … basic ideas of being against censorship.”
Her foreign policy also appealed to the intervention-averse sensibilities of many attendees too — particularly with Russia invading Ukraine the night before CPAC began.
“Lots of conservatives are now becoming a lot less interventionist. So her anti-interventionist strand, or streak, has also hit home with a lot of Republicans here as well,” Belford said.
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Gabbard opened her speech with a moment of silence for those fighting in Ukraine.
At the end of the speech, she received a standing ovation.
