Tulsi Gabbard Turning Republican Is ‘Surprise’ to Donald Trump

Former U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard, a longtime Democrat from Hawaii before turning independent in 2022, said that she has decided to join the Republican Party.

Gabbard made the announcement while addressing the crowd at former President Donald Trump’s rally in North Carolina for a few minutes Tuesday evening, during which she praised the GOP presidential nominee for bringing the Republican Party “back to the party of the people and the party of peace.”

“To those of you here or those watching at home who are independent-minded people like myself, who love our country and are committed to the Constitution and to freedom, the Democratic Party has no home for people like us,” Gabbard said. “But we do have a home in the Republican Party where we are welcomed with open arms by President Trump.”

“I’m proud to stand here with you today, President Trump, and announce that I’m joining the Republican Party,” she added.

Gabbard, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, endorsed Trump’s presidential bid in August, a little over a month after President Joe Biden stepped down from the race and Vice President Kamala Harris launched her campaign.

Trump said on Tuesday that he “didn’t know” Gabbard had decided to join the GOP, adding, “That was a surprise.”

“That was really … she’s been independent for a long time,” Trump told his rallygoers. “It’s a great thing, a great honor.”

Trump has also been endorsed by former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who suspended his campaign in August and threw his support behind the former president. Kennedy, son of ex-U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York and nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, both Democrats who were assassinated in the 1960s, has been rebuked by his family for backing Trump.

Newsweek reached out to Trump’s campaign for further comment Tuesday night.

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, meanwhile, has been supported by dozens of Republican politicians up and down the ballot, including former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter, ex-U.S. Representative Liz Cheney.

Harris’ campaign is targeting Republican voters in three key battleground states this week in hopes of winning over GOP backers who are against Trump. Liz Cheney, who represented Wyoming’s district at large, is joining the vice president on the campaign stops in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

In a statement shared to Newsweek earlier this week, the Harris campaign said that the vice president and Cheney “plan to warn about the risk of a second Trump term for America and lay out the Vice President’s agenda for a New Way Forward for the American people that focuses on their needs, not the division and chaos of Donald Trump.”

Update 10/22/24, 10:12 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information and background.