Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, said Friday she will run for president in 2020.
“I have decided to run and will be making a formal announcement within the next week,” she said in an interview for CNN’s “The Van Jones Show,” listing healthcare, criminal justice reform, and climate change as her highest priority issues.
Considered a liberal rising star in her party, Gabbard served as a vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, but she resigned in February 2016 amid rising tensions with then-DNC chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla. Upon leaving, Gabbard endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., for the party’s presidential nomination over Hillary Clinton.
Rania Batrice, who served as deputy campaign manager for Sanders in 2016, said she will be Gabbard’s campaign manager for the 2020 season.
Gabbard is an Iraq War veteran who became the first American Samoan and Hindu member of Congress when she was elected in 2012. She currently is a member of the Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees.
In January 2017, Gabbard stirred controversy when she met with Syrian President Bashar Assad to discuss ending the Syrian civil war during a secret trip to Syria. The move upset members of her own party as well as human rights activists.
Reacting to news of Gabbard’s 2020 plans, the Republican National Committee seized on her controversial Middle East trip in a statement that also said she lacks broad appeal.
“Tulsi Gabbard has an even bigger problem than her lack of experience — it’s that she has no base of support. Liberals think she’s too conservative, conservatives think she’s too liberal, and just about everyone thinks her coziness with Bashar al-Assad is disturbing,” said RNC spokesman Michael Ahrens.
Gabbard is joining what is expected to be a large stable of politicians vying for the Democratic Party’s nomination.
Other big names expected to make a decision about 2020 soon are Sanders, former Obama-era Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and former Vice President Joe Biden.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., announced on Dec. 31 that she launched an exploratory committee for a White House bid, which allows her to raise money without formally declaring.
