A new Democrat has entered the fray to become the Party’s nominee for president in 2020.
Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has told CNN that she will fight for her party’s nomination in what is expected to be a crowded Democrat field, The Hill reported.
“I have decided to run and will be making a formal announcement within the next week,” she told CNN’s Van Jones in an interview set to air Saturday.
“There are a lot of reasons for me to make this decision,” Gabbard explained.
“There are a lot of challenges that are facing the American people that I’m concerned about and that I want to help solve,” she said.
She listed access to health care, criminal justice reform and climate change as key issues.
The 37-year-old lawmaker is Congress’s first Hindu member and serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
“There is one main issue that is central to the rest, and that is the issue of war and peace,” she added in the CNN interview. “I look forward to being able to get into this and to talk about it in depth when we make our announcement.”
Gabbard joins what it expected to be a crowded Democratic presidential field in 2020, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) announcing a bid on New Year’s Eve and others expected to jump in soon, such as Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.).
Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) and former Vice President Joe Biden are also among those being floated as potential candidates.
Republicans immediately seized on Gabbard’s announcement Friday, using it to focus on her support within her party.
“Tulsi Gabbard has an even bigger problem than her lack of experience – it’s that she has no base of support,” Republican National Committee (RNC) spokesman Michael Ahrens argued in a statement. “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.”
RNC releases fact sheet on Rep. Tulsi Gabbard pic.twitter.com/lil4YUWYu8
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) January 11, 2019
Tulsi Gabbard has about as good of a chance to win the 2020 Democratic nomination as Lincoln Chafee had in 2016. There’s not exactly a big pro-Assad lane within the party’s base.
— Adam Best (@adamcbest) January 12, 2019
.@TulsiGabbard, @JulianCastro, @ewarren, are running in 2020. Speculation that @JoeBiden, @KamalaHarris and some others will run too. Oh, and @Oprah is said to be a big @BetoORourke fan.. as is @BarackObama. Man, the dems are in deep trouble.
— Joe Pags Pagliarulo (@JoeTalkShow) January 12, 2019
Because the pro-Assad, pro-Bannon, anti-Mazie Hirono lane in the Dem party is a very big one. https://t.co/uclVHPIADh
— Neera Tanden (@neeratanden) January 11, 2019
Angry Democratic partisans are going to twist themselves into knots explaining why men who support Tulsi Gabbard for president are sexists
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) January 11, 2019
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