Tulsi Gabbard, who represented Hawaii in the U.S. House from 2013 to 2021, and sought the Democratic party presidential nomination in 2020, announced Wednesday she is running for Governor of California in the 2026 gubernatorial election as an independent, joining Lt. Governor Eleni Koulanakis and State Controller Betty Yee, both democrats.
Gabbard, an Army Reserve Lieutenant Colonel who transferred from the Hawaii National Guard to the Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command, a reserve unit based in California, in 2021 (she was deployed in Iraq, something Gabbard cites as central to her political philosophy), was a progressive Congresswoman from Hawaii before seeking the Democratic nomination in 2020, snagging only 1% of the vote. She denounced the party in 2022 to become and independent, having taken conservative positions on the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, aide to Ukraine, and social issues, which she expressed on Fox News, where she is a paid contributor and has subbed for Tucker Carlson, as well as on her podcast.
In her campaign announcement video, entitled Aloha California, Gabbard stated that she hoped to build a coalition of disaffected voters; Asian-Americans, Central Valley farmers, and suburban parents, who she stayed have been left behind by the “Elitist, anti-White woke-ism of the Democratic Party”. She promised to enact a California version of Florida’s controversial Don’t Say Gay Bill, implement tough in illegal immigration policies similar to those of Governor Pete Wilson, and investigate tech companies for their alleged censorship of conservatives, whilst also pledging to balance the needs of farmers and environmentalists, expand CalCare, and create a centralized fund to make community college free and half state and U.C. tuition.
She received the endorsement of fmr. Governor Pete Wilson, Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and Representative Michelle Steele. She was quickly denounced by both Eleni Koulanakis and Betty Yee, as well as outgoing governor Gavin Newsom and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, among others, as a carpet-bagger who was too conservative for her home state, Congress, and California, and who lacked, as Governor Newsom quipped, “the California moxy–and citizenship–to be governor.”