Tulsi Gabbard, a former Hawaii representative, has expressed her support of Republican lawmakers after her announcement of splitting with the Democratic Party, claiming it was a group of "elitists."
The lawmaker endorsed on Wednesday Trump-backed GOP candidate Joe Kent in the competitive race for a southwestern Washington House seat. She also plans to campaign for Republican New Hampshire Senate nominee Don Bolduc.
Gabbard's Support of Republicans
Gabbard, who ran for U.S. president as a Democrat in 2020, revealed that she was leaving the left on Tuesday. Since then, the lawmaker has placed her support behind several candidates aligned with former United States President Donald Trump.
In a new ad for Kent, Gabbard said that his friend was a fighter, noting that he has dedicated his life to ensuring the safety, security, and freedom of the American people and the country. She said that with the people's support, Kent will go to Washington and work tirelessly to secure the border and bring peace of mind, as per The Hill.
The Republican lawmaker, who is a former Green Beret, beat out Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler for the GOP nomination in the state's August primary. Beutler, who for 12 years represented Washington's 3rd Congressional District, was among the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump.
After Beutler's loss in the Republican primary, the non-partisan Cook Political Report moved the district from "solid Republican" to "lean Republican." The district moved two notches to the left on the report's scale.
According to Fox News, the unconventional pairing of Gabbard and Bolduc comes just a day after the former announced her separation from the Democratic Party. In the video, Gabbard denounced the "elitist cabal of warmongers" who made up her former party.
She argued that Democrats divided the United States by racializing every issue and she claimed that they stoked anti-White racism. On the other hand, the New Hampshire Democratic Party (NHDP) responded to Gabbard's announcement with criticism.
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Separation With The Democratic Party
The group slammed the former Hawaii congresswoman and her decision to campaign with the Republican who is taking on longtime Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan in the midterms later this year.
In a press release on Wednesday, the NHDP claimed that Gabbard is an apologist for Russian President Vladimir Putin who has pushed conspiracy theories and stood with dangerous tyrants over the United States. They added that by campaigning with a pro-Putin lawmaker and extreme conspiracy theorist such as Gabbard, Bolduc is making only more clear how out of step he is with New Hampshire.
Gabbard's split with the Democratic Party was fueled by what she claims was lawmakers' hostility to religious freedom, among other reasons. She said that Democrats also demonize the police and instead protect criminals at the expense of law-abiding Americans.
The former Hawaii congresswoman also believes that there is a crisis on the southern border and has expressed her wishes to address the migrant issue in the United States. Gabbard also claimed that the left was dragging the country into a nuclear war with Russia amid the tense situation with the war on Ukraine, ABC News reported.