DAVENPORT, Iowa — Tulsi Gabbard believes the Democratic National Committee has a responsibility to be more open about how it’s overseeing the selection of the party’s 2020 presidential nominee.
“I think that there needs to be transparency for Democratic voters in this primary, for those who are participating in this process,” the Hawaii representative and White House hopeful, 38, told the Washington Examiner.
Gabbard, who made the comments after a town hall in Davenport, Iowa, has long had a fraught relationship with the DNC. The Hawaii Army National Guard major and Iraq War veteran, first elected to Congress in 2012, stepped down as vice chair of the organization in 2016 to endorse ideological ally Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders over establishment darling Hillary Clinton.
Now, though, Sanders is among her nearly 20 rivals in the 2020 Democratic race. And last week she failed to qualify for the September DNC-sanctioned debate in Houston because, despite meeting the 130,000 individual donor threshold, she fell short of the polling criteria. Her campaign issued a statement while she was in Indonesia for a two-week National Guard training exercise that questioned how the DNC chose the pre-approved surveys, of which candidates required four registering them at 2% support.
On Monday, Congress’ first Samoan American and Hindu member added the DNC should find a way to boost rank-and-file participation after it nixed the Iowa state party’s proposal to host virtual caucuses.
“Ultimately, the responsibility falls to the DNC leadership,” she said. “I know that a lot of things folks are concerned because without transparency, you don’t have trust in the process that’s essential for our democracy. And for our party to come through this with a nominee that folks actually voted for.”
Although Gabbard has promised to stay in the race until February’s Iowa caucuses, insisting the DNC doesn’t anoint the party’s standard-bearer, her presence could be conspicuous at the Sept. 12 debate in Houston. Previously, she used the debates in July and August to expose weaknesses in Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan’s foreign policy and California Sen. Kamala Harris’ prosecutorial record.
