Tulsi Gabbard’s presidential campaign interrupted by National Guard service

Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard will be in Indonesia for two weeks for National Guard training, ABC News reported, disrupting her campaign for the presidency at a time when Gabbard is struggling to make the third Democratic primary debates in September.

Neither Gabbard’s presidential campaign nor her congressional office responded to questions from the Honolulu Star-Advertiser seeking the dates of her training. Gabbard was at a campaign event in New York City on Tuesday and has events scheduled in Portsmouth, N.H., and Nashville, Tenn., this week.

Gabbard, who is a major in the Hawaii Army National Guard, told ABC News that her campaign will continue in her absence.

“We’ve got a strong people-­powered campaign, and so we’re working on making sure that our folks are out and they’re continuing to go to the fairs and the town halls and sharing our message as I will be stepping away from the campaign for two weeks to fulfill my duty to the Army National Guard,” she said.

Last week Gabbard surpassed the threshold of 130,000 individual donors needed to make the September debate in Houston. However, she still needs to achieve at least 2% in three polls approved by the Democratic National Committee by Aug. 28. So far, she’s met that threshold in only one qualifying poll.

Public interest in Gabbard seemed to soar following the July 31 debate in which she delivered a blistering attack on California Sen. Kama­la Harris’ criminal justice record and universal health care policy. She became the most searched Democratic presidential candidate on Google. But that interest doesn’t seem to be translating to increased popularity in the polls.

Polls conducted by Quinnipiac University and Morning Consult following the debate had Gabbard stuck stubbornly at 1%, which she has averaged throughout the campaign.

Gabbard’s debate performance, while not boosting her own standing, may have hurt Harris who, according to polls, lost ground in the race following the debate.

Gabbard’s campaign Monday sent out an email to supporters listing ways they could increase their chances of being selected to participate in a debate qualifying poll, such as signing up for YouGov and taking a few surveys with them and answering phone calls from unknown numbers, as it could be a pollster.

“So whenever you’re asked to take a poll, take it,” according to the email. “We have thousands of supporters in every state — if only a handful of us are selected for a poll, it can make the difference.”