CLAREMONT, New Hampshire — Tulsi Gabbard’s independent streak is a point of pride and attraction for some voters, but it presents a challenge for wooing staunch Democrats as she tries to surge in the 18 days before the New Hampshire presidential primary.
The Hawaii congresswoman’s “present” vote on the two articles of impeachment against President Trump in December sparked some uncomfortable encounters with voters during her campaign events in New Hampshire.
In Charlestown on Wednesday, a friendly question asking her to explain her vote was met with skepticism.
“I took the vote that I did after reflecting and reading some of the Federalist Papers and seeing how Alexander Hamilton warned that impeachment could be — could be a situation where a decision is made on impeachment driven by the strength of one party or another rather than by an objective examination of innocence or guilt,” said Gabbard, 38.
“That’s not this,” a woman in the audience interjected.
“The reality,” Gabbard continued, is that “this outcome was predetermined when this process began because it has been largely driven by partisanship.”
She added, “Trump is not innocent. That’s not the question here.” The women in the crowd shook her head and scoffed.
“Let me, let me finish, let me finish,” Gabbard said. “It will increase the likelihood that Trump’s support will strengthen,” she said, noting that she is running for president in order to remove Trump from the ballot box in November.
Gabbard announced in October that she will not seek reelection to a fifth term in the House, instead directing all of her effort to her presidential campaign. Her streak of going against the grain of the Democratic Party sparked a primary challenger for her seat who received endorsements from three former governors of Hawaii.
Her presidential campaign takes pride in attracting independent-minded voters, who it argues will be needed in order to beat Trump in November. At campaign events, Gabbard and those who introduce her ask members of the crowd to raise their hands if they identify as Republican, independent, or libertarian, and a few dozen hands go up. She has focused her campaign almost entirely on New Hampshire, which allows registered independents to vote in its Feb. 11 primary.
But staunch Democrats find it hard to rationalize her vote on impeaching Trump.
“Why on the two articles of impeachment against the worst president in my lifetime did you say, ‘present?’” retired educator Frank Fahey asked Gabbard in Claremont on Thursday.
“My vote was to very intentionally take a stand for the center, not choosing that either of those binary options, while simultaneously introducing a censure resolution that actually included many more of the abuses and acts of wrongdoing that I believe this president has done,” Gabbard said.
Fahey after the event shook Gabbard’s hand in a photo line. But the Claremont resident, who plans to vote for former Vice President Joe Biden, was not entirely satisfied with her explanation.
“I would have liked to have heard a response that spoke to what she felt the constituents that she represented in Hawaii” believe, Fahey told the Washington Examiner. “I think she spoke more to her own personal feelings.”
Gabbard told the Washington Examiner that the response to her “present” vote on the campaign trail is varied, with “some who will agree to disagree, others who disagree strongly, others who agree and support the position that [she] took strongly, and it’s understandable that people have very different feelings on this.”
“I never made the decision based on what would be politically best for my campaign,” Gabbard said. “I make those decisions on what I feel is in the best interest of the country.”
