Gabbard Attracts Politically Diverse Crowd To Fairfax Rally

FAIRFAX CITY, VA — Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), who came seventh in the New Hampshire Democratic primary last week, brought her presidential campaign to Fairfax City Monday night as part of her tour of upcoming Super Tuesday states. The rally attracted about 250 people from across the political spectrum, including progressives, libertarians and Donald Trump voters.

Gabbard, who campaigned hard in New Hampshire to disappointing results, traveled to Virginia, which holds its primary on March 3 when the largest number of states and territories will hold a presidential primary or caucus. The Hawaii congresswoman, who many people believe already dropped out of the race, plans to take her campaign to Richmond Tuesday after leaving Fairfax City.

Gabbard said her emphasis while in Congress and on the campaign trail has been how best to serve her constituents and the American people, not about one party holding political power. "I hate the politics of hyperpartisanship, of people in positions of power and influence who are more interested in keeping their power than actually helping people that they are supposed to be serving," the four-term member of Congress said.

"We can recognize problems that exist in our community, have good conversations, debates, listening, sharing our own ideas about how we solve those problems and then work together to actually do it," she told the crowd. "That's how the system is supposed to work."

But that's not how the system exists in reality, Gabbard said. "We have a government of, by and for the powerful elite," she said. "People are putting the well-being of lobbyists first."

With her appearance in Fairfax City falling on Presidents Day, Gabbard, 38, said she had been thinking about presidents who have inspired her throughout her life.

"Abraham Lincoln obviously stands tall," she said. "He gave a speech about 162 years ago where he said a house divided against itself cannot stand."

Today, the United States is increasingly divided again, "whether you're talking about politics or race or religion or gender or what cable news channel you watch," she added.

Gabbard also addressed the issue of legislation in Congress that certain lawmakers shy away from because they don't want to give President Donald Trump a legislative victory. One of those bills is The FIRST STEP Act, which was signed into law in December 2018 and is widely viewed as a win for the movement to end mass incarceration.

Gabbard co-sponsored the bill, which stands for the Formerly Incarcerated Reenter Society Transformed, Safely Transitioning Every Person. "This bill was called The FIRST STEP Act because it's literally the first step forward toward bringing about some of the prison reforms, sentencing reforms and cash bail reforms," she said.

Congress had a chance to do something — albeit an incremental change —about ending mass incarceration and it was able to pass the bill in a bipartisan manner, Gabbard said. "For politicians to say, on the one hand, we need criminal justice reform [and] we need to make sure that we stop being the most incarcerated country in the world. But then, on the other hand, when you have a chance to do someting about it, even if it means working with Donald Trump to do so, and you refuse because you put politics ahead of people, shame on you," she said.

Patch spoke with an ideologically diverse group of people to find out why they attended the campaign rally. Sam Nguyen, a volunteer with Gabbard's campaign who describes himself as a progressive who voted for Sanders in the 2016 Democratic primary, told Patch he admires her because she is the only candidate "standing up to the military-industrial complex."

As a member of the military, Gabbard has two deployments to the Middle East. "She'll never send our troops into harm's way for a meaningless conflict because she's been there herself," he said.

Charles Tullan, a student at Fairfax High School who will be voting in his first presidential election this November, said he attended the event because presidential candidates do not often make appearances in Fairfax City.

"I felt like it was my basic civic duty to come because it was so convenient to where I live," explained Tullan, who said he is undecided on who he will vote for in the March 3 Democratic primary in Virginia.

Tullan noted that the strong performances by former South Bend (IN) Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (MN) in the New Hampshire primary caused him to give their campaigns a closer look. Prior to the New Hampshire primary and the Iowa caucus, Tullan noted how the polls appeared to favor former Vice President Joe Biden and Sens. Bernie Sanders (VT) and Elizabeth Warren (MA) as the frontrunners.

"After seeing Klobuchar and Buttigieg come back up, it was like, 'Oh, I can actually vote for whoever I want now without it being a wasted vote.' So, I have to pay more attention to all the candidates now," the high school senior said.

Colleen Lester, a registered libertarian who lives in Fairfax City, said she came to the Gabbard campaign event because she wants to support a candidate who is "looking out for people across the political spectrum and trying to create some unity."

Gabbard's opposition to regime-change wars as well as her opposition to trade wars with China also appeals to Lester. "We can't have peace when we impose these onerous economic restrictions on these other countries," Lester said. "We have to be open economically, we have to be open diplomatically and we can't be dropping bombs all over the place."

Even though Gabbard finished at the back of the pack in the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary, she plans to continue her campaign at least through Super Tuesday, with hints she may stay in the race until the Democratic convention in Milwaukee in mid-July.

Gabbard's less-than-slim chance of winning the Democratic nomination isn't stopping supporters from giving to her campaign. Nguyen said he will continue to donate to Gabbard to help cover the costs of her low-budget campaign and to give more people across the country the opportunity to hear her ideas at campaign rallies.