As U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard struggles to right her faltering campaign for president, deafening in their silence are fellow Hawaii Democratic politicians who have been slow to back the hometown candidate.
Other than her father, state Sen. Mike Gabbard, the only incumbent elected official reported to attend her official announcement last weekend at the Hilton
Hawaiian Village was Honolulu Councilwoman Kymberly Pine.
Pine said she was “excited to see a woman from Hawaii making a difference,” but stopped short of offering
an endorsement.
There’s been little sign
of enthusiasm for Gabbard’s presidential candidacy among Democrats in the state Legislature, where
she previously served.
To the contrary, the most excitement has come from Democratic state Sen. Kai Kahele’s announcement that he’ll challenge Gabbard for her 2nd Congressional District seat, arguing that her national aspirations have distracted her from serving the district’s needs.
Kahele was immediately endorsed by a leading progressive website, Daily Kos, which declared Gabbard
“at odds with her party’s core beliefs.”
Gabbard is popular enough in local public opinion polls that most fellow Democratic politicians don’t see any gain in speaking out against her, but she lacks sufficient clout to make them feel a need to stand
behind her.
When they speak privately about Gabbard, concerns often come up about her trustworthiness and whether she has the gravitas to be president. Some
admire her outspokenness but are wary of her massive ambition.
Gabbard turned off many local Democrats when she threw U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono under her campaign bus by accusing her of “religious bigotry” in questioning Donald Trump’s judicial nominees. Hirono has since made clear she won’t support
Gabbard for president.
Other members of Hawaii’s congressional delegation have been politely cool to her presidential campaign; U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz said he “will be totally neutral” in the Democratic primaries, and a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Ed Case said “he has not endorsed any candidate or potential candidate.”
The unusual amount of praise Gabbard gets from the far right — and sometimes seems to court — is
a significant factor in the reluctance of elected Democrats to line up behind her.
After her attack on Hirono, Gabbard was applauded by the religious right, and her name and words were featured prominently in a conservative ad promoting the stacking of federal courts with ultraright judges.
Try as she might, Gabbard can’t shake the political
affections of former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.
She called Duke’s racism “pure evil” after he praised her several times in the past, but undeterred, he’s recently been cheering her
foreign policy views on Twitter — especially her support for Syrian dictator Bashar Assad.
These issues, along with concerns such as her past anti-gay advocacy, will continue to make prominent
local Democrats uneasy about backing Gabbard’s ambitions.
Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.
