The 2020 election is slowly approaching, and there is already a pool filling with potential presidential candidates for the Democratic party. Of those running, there is a variety of candidates of different races, genders and political experience. Most known within those declaring candidacy are former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Development Julian Castro, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, California Senator Kamala Harris and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Less known, but equally a contender, is Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard. Representative Gabbard is on the younger side of candidates at 37- years-old but has been involved in politics since 2002 when she was elected to Hawaii’s State Legislature. Right after committing to this position, the attacks on 9/11 occurred. Representative Gabbard couldn’t stand still and wanted to take part in fighting for this country. To do this, she joined the Hawaii Army National Guard and voluntarily stepped down from Legislature to serve two tours of duty in the Middle East. Between the tours, she still worked with the U.S. Senate to advise on certain issues which added to the commendible nature of her want to serve.

The platform that she is running on stems heavily from environmental passions, civil liberties and changing economic allocations. Her enthusiasm for protecting the environment, our air and water quality and sustainable energy stems from experience. She began Healthy Hawai’i Coalition when she was a teenager, a non-profit focused on educating about and protecting the environment. Her drive for unity and serving the American people can also be rooted in her past service to the country through her time dedicated to the National Guard, with whom she still serves as a Major.

In a candidate, it is nice to see someone who wants to affect real change and is not making claims just to appease the people of the U.S. The issues she is fighting for are passions she has been pursuing the majority of her life and will hopefully continue into the future. Aside from these motives, a main criticism that Representative Gabbard faces is her 2017 meeting with Bashar al-Assad, the incumbent president of Syria. Many see her as being too close to al-Assad as well as weak on Syria and the humanitarian crisis. This could be an issue as individuals do not want the acts of Syria or its leaders to be legitimized or supported by the leaders of the U.S.

Questioning DU student John Haddock about Representative Gabbard elicited a response of, “She is progressive and she has not always been progressive so she has shown that you can move from a very conservative viewpoint into a very progressive viewpoint and that is something I admire. She supports bipartisanship which I am a big fan of and she has all of these qualifications; I am a big fan of her foreign policy ideals so I think she is all around the best candidate.” Actions toward sustainability, both in aspects of the environment and economy, are needed in the U.S. and we should seek a presidential candidate fighting for this.