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Due to heavily Democratic voter registration, Tulsi Gabbard is the favorite to be elected to Congress in November in Hawaii.
Aug 16, 2012 | Richard Springer, Staff Reporter — Honolulu City Council member Tulsi Gabbard, who hopes to become the first person of the Hindu faith to serve in the U.S. Congress, easily won the Democratic primary for the House of Representatives in Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District Aug. 11.
She romped to a surprisingly decisive victory over former Honolulu mayor Mufi Hannemann. Polls had shown her with just a slight lead just two weeks before the election (I-W, Aug. 3).
Gabbard received 61,803 votes, or 55%, to 38,451 (34%) for Hannemann. Four other Democratic candidates split the rest of the ballots.
Hannemann began the race as the favorite and his loss followed his 2010 defeat by Neil Abercrombie in the governor’s race in 2010.
The 2nd District encompasses all rural and most suburban areas in the city and county of Honolulu.
The district has a clear Democratic Party advantage in voter registration, so Gabbard will be heavily favored to win in the general election in November.
She will oppose Republican David Kawika Crowley to fill a seat vacated by U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono.
Gabbard, 31, a practicing Hindu, a Vaishnava disciple of Jagad Guru Siddhaswanupananda Paramahamsa and a strict vegetarian, was born in Leloalao, American Samoa. She moved to Hawaii when she was two years old.
Gabbard’s mother, Carol Porter Gabbard, a Caucasian American, is a practicing Hindu. Her father, Mike Gabbard, is a state senator and a Catholic.
According to press reports, Gabbard was joined by U.S. Senator Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, at her campaign headquarters on election night. She thanked her supporters. Akaka, who is retiring from office this year, called Gabbard, a former aide, “a great leader” and “a great person.”
The first Indian American to serve in Congress was Dalip Singh Saund, a Sikh American, who represented California’s Central Valley in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
In 2005, Bobby Jindal, a convert to Christianity and the current governor of Louisiana, became the second Indian American elected to Congress.
Two years ago Hansen Clarke became the first Bangladeshi American elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, but he lost to a fellow Democratic incumbent in the Michigan primary in the Detroit area Aug. 7.
Gabbard, the youngest person to ever serve in the Hawaii state legislature when she was 21, left the government to volunteer for the medical operations unit of the U.S. National Guard. She was deployed to Iraq for a year and later trained the Kuwait National Guard’s counter-terrorism unit.
source: IndiaWest
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