Tulsi Gabbard
Tulsi Gabbard is an American politician and U.S. military officer serving as the eighth director of national intelligence since 2025. She previously served as U.S. representative for Hawaii's 2nd congressional district from 2013 to 2021 and in the Hawaii House of Representatives from 2002 to 2004. Gabbard was a member of the Democratic Party until 2022, after which she became independent until joining the Republican Party in 2024.
Gabbard joined the Hawaii Army National Guard in 2003 and was deployed to Iraq from 2004 to 2005, where she served as a specialist with a medical unit, and received the Combat Medical Badge. In 2007, Gabbard completed the officer training program at the Alabama Military Academy. She went to Kuwait in 2008 as an Army Military Police officer. In 2015, while also serving in Congress, Gabbard became a major with the Hawaii Army National Guard. In 2020, she transferred to the U.S. Army Reserve and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel in 2021.
In 2012, Gabbard was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Hawaii's 2nd congressional district. She became the first Samoan American and Hindu American member of the U.S. Congress. During her tenure in Congress, she served on the House Armed Services Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee. She supported the military campaign to defeat Islamic extremism but opposed the U.S. intervention in the Syrian civil war. In her fourth term, Gabbard also served on the HASC Subcommittee on Intelligence, which oversaw military intelligence and counterterrorism.
Gabbard launched her 2020 presidential campaign running on an anti-interventionist and populist platform, but dropped out and endorsed Joe Biden in March 2020. Previously, she also served as vice-chair of the Democratic National Committee from 2013 to 2016 but resigned to endorse Bernie Sanders for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination. After her departure from Congress in 2021, Gabbard took more conservative positions on issues such as transgender rights, border security, and foreign policy. In 2022, she spoke at the conservative CPAC conference and left the Democratic Party.
In 2024, Gabbard endorsed Donald Trump for the presidential election and joined the Republican Party later that year. After Trump nominated Gabbard for DNI, her past statements on Syria and the Russian invasion of Ukraine drew scrutiny and concern. Many veterans and Republicans defended Gabbard's record, noting her military service and congressional experience. In February 2025, she was confirmed by the Senate, becoming the highest-ranking Pacific Islander American government official in U.S. history.
Early life and education
Gabbard was born on April 12, 1981, in Leloaloa on American Samoa's main island of Tutuila. She is the fourth of five children born to G. Michael Gabbard and his wife Carol. In 1983, when she was two years old, her family moved back to Hawaii, where they had lived in the late 1970s. Her mother was born in Indiana and grew up in Michigan, and her father, who is of Samoan and European ancestry, was born in American Samoa; he grew up in Hawaii and Florida. Her name is derived from the word tulasi, an herb.Gabbard grew up in Honolulu. During her early years, Gabbard's parents owned a vegetarian restaurant, The Natural Deli in Moiliili, Hawaii, a neighbood of Honolulu. Gabbard participated in surfing, martial arts, and yoga as a child. She was mostly home schooled except for two years at a girls' school in the Philippines. Gabbard learned spiritual principles like karma, from the ancient Indian text Bhagavad Gita. As a teenager, she adopted the Hindu faith.
As a young adult, Gabbard worked for Stand Up For America , founded by her father in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Around 2001, Gabbard's father got active in local politics and was elected to the Honolulu City Council. She was also associated with her father's The Alliance for Traditional Marriage and Values, an anti-gay marriage political action committee. Gabbard briefly worked as an educator with the Healthy Hawai'i Coalition, which promoted protection of Hawaii's natural environment. She also worked as a self-employed martial arts instructor.
In 2002, when she was 21, Gabbard dropped out of Leeward Community College in Pearl City where she had been studying television production, to run for the Hawaii state legislature, and she became the youngest woman ever elected as a U.S. state representative. In 2006, Gabbard's father became a Hawaii state senator. In 2009, Gabbard graduated from Hawaii Pacific University in Honolulu with a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration with a concentration in international business.
Military service
In April 2003, while serving in the Hawaii State Legislature, Gabbard enlisted in the Hawaii Army National Guard. In July 2004, she was deployed for a 12-month tour in Iraq, serving as a specialist with the Medical Company, 29th Support Battalion, 29th Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the Hawaii Army National Guard. In Iraq, Gabbard served at Logistical Support Area Anaconda, completing her tour in 2005. Because of the deployment, she chose not to campaign for reelection to the state legislature.Gabbard received a Combat Medical Badge in 2005 for "participation in combat operations under enemy hostile fire in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom III." She has been awarded the Meritorious Service Medal from the United States and she received the German Armed Forces Badge for Military Proficiency.
In March 2007, she graduated from the Accelerated Officer Candidate School at the Alabama Military Academy at the top of her class, the first woman ever to do so. After successfully completing officer training, Gabbard was commissioned as a second lieutenant, and assigned to the 29th Infantry Brigade Special Troops Battalion, this time to serve as an Army Military Police officer. She was stationed in Kuwait from 2008 to 2009 as an Army Military Police platoon leader. She was one of the first women to enter a Kuwaiti military facility, as well as the first woman to receive an award of appreciation from the Kuwait National Guard.
On October 12, 2015, she was promoted from the rank of captain to major at a ceremony at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. She continued to serve as a major in the Hawaii Army National Guard until her transfer to the 351st Civil Affairs Command, a California-based United States Army Reserve unit assigned to the United States Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command, in June 2020.
On July 4, 2021, Gabbard was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel, while she was deployed to the Horn of Africa working as a civil affairs officer in support of a special operations mission. Next, she was given the command of the 1st Battalion, 354th Regiment, based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She reportedly maintained a top-secret security clearance during her military service.
Early political career
Hawaii House of Representatives (2002–2004)
In 2002, after redistricting, Gabbard won the four-candidate Democratic primary for the 42nd district of the Hawaii House of Representatives with a plurality of 43% of the vote. Gabbard then won the general election with 60.7% of the vote, defeating Republican Alfonso Jimenez. At the age of 21, Gabbard became the youngest legislator ever elected in Hawaii's history, and was at the time the youngest woman ever elected to a U.S. state legislature.In 2004, Gabbard filed for reelection but then volunteered for Army National Guard service in Iraq. Rida Cabanilla, who filed to run against her, called on Gabbard to resign because she would not be able to effectively represent her district from Iraq. While she legally would have been allowed to hold her seat, a directive from the Defense Department issued in August 2004 would have forbidden her from voting on bills or fulfilling other duties of her elective office for the duration of her active duty deployment. Gabbard announced in August 2004 that she would not campaign for a second term, and Cabanilla won the Democratic primary with 58% of the vote. State law prevented the removal of Gabbard's name from the ballot.
Honolulu City Council (2011–2012)
After returning home from her second deployment to the Middle East in 2009, Gabbard ran for a seat on the Honolulu City Council vacated by City Councilman Rod Tam, of the 6th district, who decided to retire to run for mayor of Honolulu. In the 10-candidate nonpartisan open primary in September 2010, Gabbard finished first with 26.8% of the vote. The seat represented parts of downtown Honolulu, including Alewa Heights, Kalihi Valley, and areas of Makiki and Kalihi. During her campaign for the council, Gabbard was still publicly known as "Tulsi Gabbard Tamayo". During her campaign, Gabbard's opponents accused her of improperly using her tax-exempt Stand Up for America nonprofit to promote her candidacy. The organization included content on its website which promoting her candidacy. Gabbard called this an "honest mistake" by one of the organization's volunteers, and denied having had knowledge of it. Gabbard won election in the November 2 runoff election, capturing 49.5% of the vote and defeating Sesnita Moepono.While on the council, Gabbard introduced a measure to help food truck vendors by loosening parking restrictions. She also introduced Bill 54, a measure that authorized city workers to confiscate personal belongings stored on public property with 24 hours notice to its owner. After overcoming opposition from the American Civil Liberties Union and Occupy Hawai'i, Bill 54 passed and became City Ordinance 1129.
United States House of Representatives (2013–2021)
113th Congress
In early 2011, Mazie Hirono, the incumbent Democratic U.S. Representative for Hawaii's 2nd congressional district, announced her candidacy for the U.S. Senate. In May 2011, Gabbard declared her candidacy for the open House seat. The Democratic mayor of Honolulu, Mufi Hannemann, was considered the frontrunner in the six-way primary, but Gabbard won with 55% of the vote. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser wrote about her victory saying it was an "improbable rise from a distant underdog to victory." She resigned from the Honolulu City Council on August 16, 2012, to focus on her congressional campaign.As the Democratic nominee, Gabbard was invited by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to speak at the 2012 Democratic National Convention, where she was introduced as "an emerging star." Gabbard was one of three female House candidates that were chosen to speak on-stage during a segment of the convention highlighting female membership in the party's House delegation. In her remarks, she touched on her military background and praised President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden as "the strongest advocates military families could have". In the general election, she defeated Republican Kawika Crowley with 80.6% of the vote, becoming the first voting Samoan American and the first Hindu member of Congress.
In December 2012, Gabbard applied for appointment to the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the death of Daniel Inouye. Despite support from some prominent mainland Democrats, she was not among the three candidates forwarded to the governor by the Hawaii Democratic Party.
In March 2013, she introduced the Helping Heroes Fly Act to expedite airport security screening for severely wounded veterans. The bill received bipartisan support, passed unanimously in both chambers of Congress, and was signed into law by President Obama. She also introduced the House version of the Military Justice Improvement Act.