Tulsi Gabbard is first Hindu to contest U.S. Presidential race.

January 12, 2019. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii announced she will seek the Democratic nomination for the 2020 Presidential election. Kamala Harris, Senator from California, is expected to also announce her candidacy shortly.

Tulsi grew up in Hawai‘i. As a teenager, she co-founded a non-profit called Healthy Hawai’i Coalition, focused on educating children about protecting Hawaii’s environment. 

She was elected to the Hawai‘i State Legislature in 2002 when just 21 years old, becoming the youngest person ever elected in the state. A year later, she joined the Hawai‘i Army National Guard and volunteered to deploy with her fellow soldiers.

Tulsi served two tours of duty in the Middle East, and she continues her service as a Major in the Army National Guard. She was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal at the end of her tour.

In between her two tours, Tulsi served in the U.S. Senate as a legislative aide to Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI), where she advised him on energy independence, homeland security, the environment, and veteran issues. While working for Senator Akaka in 2007, Tulsi graduated from the Accelerated Officer Candidate School at the Alabama Military Academy, where she was the first woman to finish as the distinguished honor graduate in the Academy's 50-year history.

Tulsi continued to work for Senator Akaka until 2009, when she again voluntarily deployed with her unit to the Middle East. During this deployment, in addition to leading her platoon on a wide variety of security missions, she conducted non-military host-nation visits and served as a primary trainer for the Kuwait National Guard.

In 2010, Tulsi was elected to the Honolulu City Council. She was elected in 2012 to the United States House of Representatives from Hawaii. She is one of the first female combat veterans to serve in the U.S. Congress, and also its first Hindu member. Now in her fourth term in Congress, Tulsi serves on the House Armed Services Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee. 

Kamala Harris, who is on a tour promoting her book The Truths We Hold, is expected to shortly announce that she too will contest the 2020 Presidential election. She is daughter of Shyamala Gopalan, a medical researcher from Chennai. In 2017, Kamala was sworn in as a United States Senator for California, the second African-American woman and first South Asian-American senator in history. She serves on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Select Committee on Intelligence, the Committee on the Judiciary, and the Committee on the Budget.

Kamala says her life passion to fight injustice was inspired by her mother Shyamala, an Indian-American immigrant, activist, and breast cancer researcher. After earning an undergraduate degree from Howard University and a law degree from the University of California, Hastings, she began her career in the Alameda County District Attorney's Office.

In 2003, Kamala became the District Attorney of the City and County of San Francisco. Among her achievements as District Attorney, Harris started a program that gives first-time drug offenders the chance to earn a high school diploma and find employment.

Having completed two terms as the District Attorney of San Francisco, Kamala was elected as the first African-American and first woman to serve as California's Attorney General.Over the course of her nearly two terms in office, Kamala won a $25-billion settlement for California homeowners hit by the foreclosure crisis, defended California’s landmark climate change law, protected the Affordable Care Act, helped win marriage equality for all Californians, and prosecuted transnational gangs that trafficked in guns, drugs, and human beings.

As a senator, Kamala has introduced and cosponsored legislation to raise wages for working people, reform the broken criminal justice system, make healthcare a right for all Americans, address the epidemic of substance abuse, support veterans and military families, and expand access to childcare for working parents. 

She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Doug Emhoff, and is stepmother to Ella and Cole Emhoff.