Tulsi Gabbard, the former Hawaii Congresswoman who left the Democratic Party in 2022, reportedly turned down an offer to join Robert F. Kennedy’s presidential ticket.
“I met with Kennedy several times, and we have become good friends,” Ms. Gabbard said in a statement to ABC News. ”He asked if I would be his running mate. After careful consideration, I respectfully declined.”
Ms. Gabbard served four terms in Congress representing Hawaii, became disenchanted, and left the Democratic Party.
Mr. Kennedy met with Ms. Gabbard in January when he was campaigning in Hawaii. She was the candidate most frequently mentioned as Mr. Kennedy’s potential running mate in the early stages of the vetting process.
Ms. Gabbard has not said why she decided against becoming Mr. Kennedy’s vice presidential pick.
A “source close to the Kennedy campaign” told ABC News, “There were definitely meetings, but it didn’t work out. We talked to a bunch of people. Tulsi’s a rock star no matter what.”
Ms. Gabbard is the author of “For Love of Country: Why I Left the Democratic Party.” The book is published by a firm owned by Anthony Lyons, co-chairman of American Values 2024, a Kennedy-aligned Super PAC.
In recent weeks, Ms. Gabbard has spoken favorably about former President Donald Trump. According to multiple reports, she could be on President Trump’s short list of vice presidential picks.
Last month, she said she “would be open” to joining President Trump as his running mate. On March 26, Mr. Kennedy named Silicon Valley lawyer Nicole Shanahan as his running mate.
Ms. Shanahan is a political novice and emerged as a late-breaking candidate in Mr. Kennedy’s months-long search for a vice president. She was introduced at an event in Oakland, where she was raised.
Mr. Kennedy’s campaign is hopeful that the decision will fuel momentum as it continues the quest to gain ballot access in all 50 states and the District of Columbia while fighting an organized effort by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to thwart that objective.
Before he introduced Ms. Shanahan, Mr. Kennedy told an audience of 2,000 that the ticket would be on the ballot in every state and the District of Columbia. He has said that it will take at least $15 million for the efforts required to accomplish that feat.
Fundraising will be a focus in the upcoming weeks and months. Stefanie Spear, Mr. Kennedy’s press secretary, told The Epoch Times that Mr. Kennedy and Ms. Shanahan will appear at some events together and at other times they will “divide and conquer” at voter rallies and fundraising events.
Mr. Kennedy noted that polls indicate he is attracting young voters and pointed out a survey that showed he leads all presidential candidates with voters under 35. He highlighted his running mate’s young age.
“I was most importantly looking for a partner who is a young person, and Nicole is only 38 years old. There’s a growing number of millennials and Gen Z Americans who have lost faith in their future and lost their pride in our country,” Mr. Kennedy said.
“Many in [the younger] generation have stopped believing that older people who have been running our government for so long understand them or represent their interests. That older generation that now dominates Congress, the Supreme Court, the White House is the same generation, that same people who ran up the $34 trillion debt, and millennials and Gen Z and their children will shoulder the burden.”
Ms. Shanahan was formerly married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin. She helped fund and create Mr. Kennedy’s $7 million Super Bowl campaign ad.
The Silicon Valley lawyer “shares my indignation about the participation of Big Tech as a partner in the censorship and their surveillance, and the information warfare that our government is currently waging against the American people,” Mr. Kennedy said.
“That’s why I’m bringing on someone with a deep inside knowledge of how big tech uses AI to manipulate the public. I wanted a partner with strong ideas about how to reverse those dire threats to democracy and our freedoms. I managed to find a technologist at the forefront of AI,” he added.
During her address, Ms. Shanahan described a challenging childhood. Her mother immigrated from China and her father was “plagued by substance abuse” and “struggled to keep a job.”
Ms. Shanahan added that her family was helped by welfare and food stamps, and she could relate to families “just one misfortune away from disaster” even though she attained wealth later in life.
The DNC and multiple Democrat and Republican political pundits have said that Mr. Kennedy only selected Ms. Shanahan because of her wealth and her ability to help fund his campaign.
In an interview with CNN on April 1, Mr. Kennedy dismissed that speculation.
“I don’t think anybody who watched that speech would ever say that. She was impressive. She’s eloquent. She’s authentic. Her life is a template to the American dream,” Mr. Kennedy said.
“She started out as a minority kid in Oakland in extraordinary poverty, on food stamps on welfare. She grew up and became a Stanford fellow. She became an entrepreneur. She’s a very, very successful businesswoman. She has [an] encyclopedic knowledge of AI. She has an encyclopedic knowledge [of] the chronic disease epidemic and how to stop it. She’s young and she’s a mother,” he added.
Mr. Kennedy defended his choice of a running mate who does not have political experience.
“I didn’t want an insider because it was the insiders who created all the problems. They created the debt crisis. They created the addiction to war. They created [a] chronic disease epidemic. They created the polarization,” he explained.
“I wanted somebody outside who was thinking outside of the box. We’re the only campaign that is looking at this assault on our children, on what is happening to this young generation. So I wanted somebody who is young, who is not an 80-year-old man,” he added.
