As her campaign stumbles, Gabbard is starting plenty of fires elsewhere. After her announcement, her hometown paper published an editorial recommending that she “focus on her job” instead of a presidential bid. Hawaii state Senator Kai Kahele announced earlier this month that he plans to challenge Gabbard for her congressional seat, saying somewhat pointedly in a video released on Martin Luther King Jr. day that Hawaii needs “leaders who put the common interests of Hawaii’s people ahead of their own.” And Gabbard herself ignited a feud with Senator Mazie Hirono, one of the most popular senators in the country, by “implicitly accusing” her and other Democrats of having “weaponized religion for their own selfish gain” in her questioning of a judicial nominee. (Hirono’s office shot back with a statement, calling it “unfortunate that Congresswoman Gabbard based her misguided opinion on the far-right wing manipulation of these straightforward questions.”)

Though her heterodoxy had always alienated Gabbard from her Democratic peers—her strict anti-interventionist foreign policy, for instance, has won plaudits from both the far left and the far right—Gabbard’s flirtation with the Joe Rogan constituency will likely win her few fans in a Democratic primary. If her campaign continues on its downward spiral, however, her message might never get a chance to break through.

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