Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez sought to quell the fears of some Democrats that Rep. Tulsi Gabbard could launch an independent or third-party bid in the 2020 presidential race.
Perez said Wednesday that he spoke with Gabbard and the other 2020 campaigns last week, and that each remained committed to honoring their pledge to only run for president as a Democrat in the 2020 cycle.
“We’ve worked with every campaign including the Gabbard campaign and she’s told us, and she’s told the American people, ‘I am not running as a third party candidate,'” Perez said. “We asked every candidate to take that pledge … Tulsi took it enthusiastically … she took an unequivocal pledge in that regard,” Perez said, according to The Hill.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was the 2016 Democratic nominee, suggested last month that Republicans believe Gabbard could be persuaded to run as a third-party candidate, which could benefit Trump in the general election.
“They are also going to do third-party again, and I’m not making any predictions but I think they got their eye on somebody who is currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third-party candidate,” Clinton said.
Clinton also alleged Gabbard was “a favorite of the Russians.”
Gabbard, 38, said in October she would not seek reelection for her House seat in Hawaii and was fully committed to her presidential campaign. She held public office as a Hawaii state representative from 2002 to 2004, and was a Honolulu city councilwoman from 2011 to 2012, when she was elected to Congress.
She has repeatedly said she would not run for president as an independent or third-party candidate and would support the eventual Democratic presidential nominee.
