Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who left the Democratic Party to become an independent in October 2022, said she turned down an offer to be Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s running mate.
"I met with Kennedy several times, and we have become good friends," she said in a statement, reports ABC News. "He asked if I would be his running mate. After careful consideration, I respectfully declined."
Gabbard did not explain the reasons she chose not to accept the offer.
Kennedy announced last week Nicole Shanahan as his running mate, saying the 38-year-old donor, entrepreneur, and attorney will be someone “who will speak for millennials and Gen Z. Someone who cares about healing our children, protecting our environment, restoring our soils, and getting the chemicals out of our food, and who understands how technology will either enslave us or give us a path back to freedom and prosperity."
Gabbard said last month that she "would be open to" becoming former President Donald Trump's running mate.
"My mission is to serve our country,” Gabbard told Fox News's Jesse Watters. “I wanna be in a position to solve problems, Jesse, and we got a lot of ‘em to solve."
When Gabbard left the Democratic Party, she blasted it as being “under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers who are driven by cowardly wokeness.”
She asked others to join her at the time and is doing so again in her new book, "For Love of Country: Leave the Democrat Party Behind."
Ep. 84 Tulsi Gabbard could be the next vice president. Here’s what she believes. pic.twitter.com/ArQkIYNxw6
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) March 25, 2024