Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has bigger problems as she embarks on a long-shot presidential bid than an early career in Democratic politics in Hawaii defined by aggressive opposition to same-sex marriage.
The congresswoman has accomplished little legislatively during four terms in Washington, and seasoned Democratic strategists say the party is looking for more, as it readies to challenge President Trump, than a political contrarian with a knack for garnering headlines. Amid a crowded field of Democratic heavyweights and inspiring anti-establishment figures, this blemish on Gabbard’s resume, not gay marriage, could sink her White House ambitions.
“Even in the era of Trump, where qualifications don’t seem to matter, and presidential candidate fields number in the dozens, I think it’s hard to fathom how Gabbard could be considered a top-tier candidate,” Garry South, a veteran Democratic strategist in California — a state poised to play a decisive role in the party’s 2020 primary — told the Washington Examiner. “There will be no dearth of qualified women candidates, so why would anyone turn to Gabbard?”
Gabbard is hardly the first Democrat to begin her political career opposed to gay marriage, only to evolve toward favoring it. Plus, she has profusely apologized. But her rhetoric during those years was strident, and her participation intense.
“As Democrats, we should be representing the views of the people, not a small number of homosexual extremists,” Gabbard, then a Hawaii legislator, said during testimony given in opposition to a bill that would have legalized same-sex unions, according to information reported by CNN’s KFile investigative unit.
Gabbard also was an advocate for conversion therapy, a practice that attempts to redirect sexual orientation from gay to straight. The therapy has been dismissed by medical and psychological professionals.
Gabbard, 37, is an Iraq war veteran who is progressive but not reliably partisan.
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In 2016 she endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in the Democratic presidential primary against party favorite Hillary Clinton, resigning her position as vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee in order to do so. After Trump was elected, Gabbard, an occasional critic of former President Barack Obama, signaled openness toward the new Republican commander in chief, particularly on national security issues.
It’s all a part of what one Democratic operative described as Gabbard’s unpredictability.
“You can’t pin a label on her. It’s hard to do. And I don’t know that that turns out to be a plus or a minus,” said the operative, who has worked on presidential campaigns and who, like most interviewed for this story, requested anonymity so as not to appear to be taking sides in the primary. “Can she break through? Yeah, there’s a real shot. There’s also a chance that she’s tilting at windmills.”
That was among the more positive assessments of Gabbard’s prospects.
In a primary that already features Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Julian Castro, the former housing secretary under Obama and ex-San Antonio Mayor, and is soon to welcome Sen. Kamala Harris of California, Sen. Kirsten Gilibrand of New York, and possibly former Vice President Joe Biden, many Democratic insiders expect Gabbard’s presidential bid to be inconsequential.
Her gay marriage record, though sure to prompt questions, is considered surmountable by Democratic strategists. Her position on Syria and embrace of dictator Bashar Assad, responsible for the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of his own citizens, is another matter.
“Her policy views put her way outside the mainstream of the Democratic Party and, frankly, of the country,” a party strategist said. “She’s made her national profile being anti-gay, pro-Assad, and anti-Democrat. It’s hard to see that as a path to the nomination.”
