Tulsi Gabbard

She was commissioned as a second lieutenant, and assigned to the 29th Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 29th Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the Hawaii Army National Guard, this time to serve as an Army Military Police officer.

Tulsi Gabbard (born April 12, 1981) is an American politician, United States Army Reserve officer and political commentator who was the U.S. representative for Hawaii's 2nd congressional district from 2013 to 2021.

Gabbard was the first Hindu member of Congress and also the first Samoan-American voting member of Congress.

Gabbard was born on April 12, 1981, in Leloaloa, Maʻopūtasi County, on American Samoa's main island of Tutuila.

She was the fourth of five children born to Carol (née Porter) Gabbard and Mike Gabbard.

In 1983, when Gabbard was two years old, her family moved to Hawaii, where they had lived in the late 1970s.

Gabbard has both European and Samoan ancestry, and was raised in a multicultural household.

Her mother was born in Indiana and grew up in Michigan.

Her father was born in American Samoa and lived in Hawaii and Florida as a child; he is of Samoan and European ancestry.

Gabbard's given name, "Tulasi" in Sanskrit, is the word for holy basil, regarded as an earthly manifestation of the Goddess Tulasi.

She was raised in part with the teachings of the Science of Identity Foundation (SIF), a breakaway sect of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).

She has said Mr. Butler, the leader of SIF, was a guide to her and described him as "essentially like a Vaishnava Hindu pastor."

According to some sources, Gabbard was homeschooled through high school, except for two years at an all-girls SIF boarding school in the Philippines.

Gabbard settled into the Hindu faith as a teenager.

Gabbard worked for a number of organizations founded by her father, including:

In 2002, Gabbard was elected to the Hawaii House of Representatives at the age of 21.

In 2002, while working as a self-employed martial arts instructor, Gabbard dropped out of Leeward Community College, where she was studying television production, to successfully run for election to the Hawaii House of Representatives.

In April 2003, while serving in the Hawaii State Legislature, Gabbard enlisted in the Hawaii Army National Guard.

Gabbard served in a field medical unit of the Hawaii Army National Guard while deployed to Iraq from 2004 to 2005 and was stationed in Kuwait from 2008 to 2009 as an Army Military Police platoon leader.

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.

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.

In March 2007, she graduated from the Accelerated Officer Candidate School at the Alabama Military Academy.

She was stationed in Kuwait from 2008 to 2009.

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.

Gabbard is a recipient of the Combat Medical Badge and the Meritorious Service Medal.

In 2009, Gabbard graduated from Hawaii Pacific University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in International Business.

While a member of Congress, she served as a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) from 2013 to 2016, and resigned to endorse Bernie Sanders' campaign for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.

During her time in Congress, she frequently appeared on Fox News to criticize the Barack Obama administration for refusing to say that the real enemy of the United States is radical Islam or Islamic extremism.

During her presidential campaign, she highlighted an opposition to military interventionism, although she has called herself a "hawk" on terrorism.

Her decision to meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and her skepticism of claims that he had used chemical weapons gave rise to public disagreement from mainstream Democrats.

In March 2020, Gabbard ended her presidential candidacy to endorse Joe Biden and was succeeded by Kai Kahele in the House of Representatives on January 3, 2021.

Gabbard has since taken more conservative positions on issues such as abortion, transgender rights and border security.

Gabbard endorsed Florida's Parental Rights in Education Act and was a featured speaker at the 2022 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

She continued her frequent presence on Fox News, including serving as a fill-in host for Tucker Carlson Tonight and eventually becoming a paid contributor to the network.

In October 2022, Gabbard announced that she had left the Democratic Party altogether, citing their positions on foreign policy and social issues as the primary reasons for her departure, and as of that date is unaffiliated with any party.

She followed her announcement by endorsing and campaigning for numerous Republican candidates in that year's midterm elections.

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 was a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2020 United States presidential election, before announcing in October 2022 that she had left the Democratic Party to become an independent.

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.