Tulsi Gabbard Keen To Contest Presidential Election As Democrat Candidate, Not As An Independent

File Picture Courtesy : AP

Tulsi Gabbard, the first Hindu lawmaker in the US Congress who is running for the presidency, has said that she will not contest as an independent candidate if she fails to win the Democratic presidential nomination, according to a media report.

Gabbard, 38, an Iraq war veteran who has been serving as the US Representative for Hawaii’s 2nd congressional district since 2013, said that she will be going to focus on moving campaign forward, continuing this grassroots campaign, continuing to deliver the message to the American people and ask for their support, CNN reported.

“I will not,” she told the network. “No, I have ruled that out.”

Gabbard, however, was failed to qualify for the next Democratic debate in September after making it to the first two debates. She reached the fundraising threshold, but did not meet the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) polling minimum to qualify, the report said.

She claimed on Thursday that there is “no explanation or transparency around why certain polls are qualifying while other very credible recognized polls are somehow not qualifying.”

“Frankly, the DNC has not provided any transparency to voters about how they’re making these decisions,” she said.

Gabbard, who converted to Hinduism early in her life, is highly popular among Indian-Americans.