Tulsi Gabbard

Tulsi Gabbard (, born April 12, 1981) is an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who has been the United States Representative for Hawaii's 2nd congressional district since 2013. She was also a vice-chair of the Democratic National Committee until February 28, 2016, when she resigned to endorse Senator Bernie Sanders for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination. Elected in 2012, she is the first American Samoan and the first Hindu member of the United States Congress. She served in a combat zone in Iraq. Gabbard (then known as Tulsi Gabbard Tamayo) served in the Hawaii House of Representatives from 2002 to 2004, becoming at age 21 the youngest woman to be elected to a state legislature at the time. Gabbard supports abortion rights, opposed the Trans-Pacific Partnership, has called for a restoration of the Glass–Steagall Act, and has been in favor of same-sex marriage since 2012. She opposes US-led regime-change wars like those in Iraq, Libya, and Syria, and has opposed US-led removal of Bashar al-Assad from power, arguing that US regime-change intervention in Syria's civil war is a source of the Syrian refugee crisis. Gabbard has been mentioned as a potential candidate for president in 2020. 2Early life and education Tulsi Gabbard was born on April 12, 1981, in Leloaloa, American Samoa, the fourth of five children. Her father, Mike Gabbard, is of American Samoan descent; his Samoan family moved to the United States and he became a naturalized citizen at age on