Presidential candidate and Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard greets guests at the Polk County Democrats’ Steak Fry in Iowa (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

As Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) tries to raise her profile in the 2020 Democratic field amid a spat with former presidential contender Hillary Clinton, she’s being outraised in her home state by a primary challenger.

Hawaii state Sen. Kai Kahele, a Democrat, has raised $345,616 from Hawaii donors in his bid to unseat Gabbard. That’s more than Gabbard’s presidential campaign has raised from donors in the Aloha State — $221,501 — over the same time period through September.

Congressional candidates typically attract significantly more in-state cash than presidential contenders, particularly those from small states like Hawaii. Gabbard’s top state so far, like most presidential hopefuls, is California, which provided her with nearly $1.2 million.

Hawaii is one of the few states that allows candidates to run for president and Congress at the same time. But Gabbard isn’t even attempting to raise money for her House bid, taking in no cash for her congressional campaign from July through September. Kahele, on the other hand, has brought in nearly $500,000 and is sitting on more than $370,000 cash on hand. He has raised most of his money, 74 percent, from individual donors giving more than $200.

One of Kahele’s main criticisms of Gabbard is that she has been too focused on running for president to represent her district. He noted last week that Gabbard missed a vote to condemn President Donald Trump’s decision to abandon Kurdish forces in northern Syria. Gabbard has missed more than half of the House votes from July through September, and 83 percent of votes in October, according to GovTrack.us. Her low attendance rate is similar to many other presidential candidates.

Gabbard has $2.1 million left in her presidential campaign, and if she decides to abandon her low-polling White House bid to keep her seat in Congress, she could transfer that cash back to her House campaign.

One prominent political figure doesn’t think Gabbard will run for that House seat. Clinton made headlines last week when she appeared to imply in a podcast interview that Gabbard will run as a third-party “spoiler” candidate with the support of Russian state-sponsored actors. Clinton followed that up by saying 2016 Green Party candidate Jill Stein is “also a Russian asset,” without offering substantial evidence.

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Gabbard responded by calling Clinton “the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long…” on Twitter. She later promoted a video from conservative Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson that is critical of Clinton as part of a fundraising appeal for her presidential campaign.

Once a rising star within the Democratic Party, Gabbard resigned from her post as vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee to endorse Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) over Clinton in 2016. Gabbard now says Clinton and her “rich and powerful friends” are trying to destroy her over that decision.

“To that I say: Bring it. They will not intimidate us. They will not silence us,” Gabbard said in a fundraising email Monday.

In another fundraising email sent out Saturday, Gabbard challenged Clinton to “face her directly” by joining the 2020 Democratic primary.

Gabbard did lose support from traditionally Democratic groups after backing Sanders. She took in more than $121,000 from ideological PACs between the 2014 and 2016 election cycles, but just $7,000 during last year’s midterms.

During her first election as an incumbent in 2014, Gabbard got campaign contributions from PACs connected to Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who is now one of Gabbard’s presidential primary opponents. But in 2018, Gabbard received campaign cash from just one leadership PAC — that of Bernie Sanders.

Researcher Alex Baumgart contributed to this report. Data includes all contributions over $200 and small contributions given through ActBlue through the first half of the year.



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