Tulsi Gabbard Will Seek Democratic Nomination for 2020 Presidency

Local Editor

US Representative Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat from Hawaii, announced on a CNN show set to air Saturday that she will seek the 2020 Democratic nomination for president.

"I have decided to run and will be making a formal announcement within the next week," CNN quoted Gabbard as saying in a pre-taped interview for "The Van Jones Show."

Gabbard listed criminal justice reform, climate change and health care as issues that she was interested in solving.

"There is one main issue that is central to the rest, and that is the issue of war and peace," Gabbard said, according to CNN. "I look forward to being able to get into this and to talk about it in depth when we make our announcement."

Gabbard, 37, arrived in Congress six years ago after an underdog campaign for Hawaii's mostly rural 2nd District. She had been a force in Hawaii politics for years, making news by becoming the youngest person — just 21 at the time — ever elected to the state legislature. She made news again when she left the seat to serve in Iraq with the Army National Guard.

"I stepped down from the legislature where I served, and headed to a war zone," Gabbard recalled at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. "As a combat veteran, I know the costs of war."

Gabbard won the 2012 race with the support of veterans' groups and by Emily's List, which supports female candidates who support abortion rights, and arrived in Congress as a star — a female Iraq War veteran and the first Hindu woman to serve in the body.

She quickly established herself as a voice for her party's left on domestic issues and a critic of foreign military intervention. By the middle of her second term, she was getting asked if she might one day run for president.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team