Tulsi Gabbard Says Will Not Run As Independent Presidential Candidate

Tulsi Gabbard, the first Hindu lawmaker in the US Congress to run for the presidency, has said that she will not contest as an independent candidate if she fails to win the Democratic presidential nomination, a media report said. 

Tulsi Gabbard, 38, an Iraq war veteran who has been serving as the US Representative for Hawaii's 2nd congressional district since 2013, said that she will focus on moving her campaign and continue to ask for the support of people, CNN reported.

"I will not," she told the network. "No, I have ruled that out."

Tulsi Gabbard, however failed to qualify for the next Democratic debate in September after making it to the first two debates. She reached the fundraising threshold, but did not meet the Democratic National Committee's (DNC) polling minimum to qualify, the report said.

She claimed on Thursday that there is "no explanation or transparency around why certain polls are qualifying while other very credible recognized polls are somehow not qualifying."

"Frankly, the DNC has not provided any transparency to voters about how they''re making these decisions," she said.

Earlier this month, Tulsi Gabbard took a two-week break to report for active duty with the Hawaiian Army National Guard in Indonesia for training exercises that includes counterterrorism and disaster response.

Tulsi Gabbard served in the Hawaii Army National Guard in Iraq from 2004 to 2005. She served a second deployment in Kuwait in 2008 and 2009, working with the Kuwaiti Army.