Tulsi Gabbard campaigns with Republican Yesli Vega in Virginia. | Getty Tulsi Gabbard campaigns with Republican Yesli Vega in Virginia.
Tulsi Gabbard has been campaigning with Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Mark Warner in an effort to unseat the Democrat he beat in 2016.
Gabbard, an Iraq War veteran, served as one of the original co-authors of H.R. 1, the 2015 congressional resolution calling for a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. She has also been critical of President Donald Trump and has supported impeachment proceedings against him.
On Saturday, the two-term congresswoman from Hawaii met with voters in Virginia. Warner, a former Republican congressman, was challenging Democrat Tim Kaine in the state. Gabbard and her supporters are making an all but certain bid for Warner’s seat, where she is considered the most vulnerable Democrat in the country. Kaine is favored to win the general election, but it’s still not clear if he will be able to defeat either the Republican or Democratic challenger.
“We have a lot of work to do to turn Virginia blue,” Gabbard told POLITICO.
In her first campaign since launching a Senate bid last year, Gabbard has been focusing heavily on Virginia and its Senate map. Her campaign is also targeting rural precincts and has hired a data team that has compiled data on voters, including data on how they voted in 2016 and how they vote this year.
Gabbard’s campaign is also turning up the fundraising game. The national Democratic Party and Democratic groups have been able to fund several high-profile TV ads, including a $4.8 million buy by the Democratic Governors Association for a spot by her political action arm backing her Senate bid.
The Virginia Senate race is likely to be a defining test of Democratic and Republican messaging on the issue of military intervention in the region. Gabbard has also been emphasizing her own credentials as a veteran.
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