Tulsi Gabbard Urges Wyoming To Throw Political Labels Aside And Vote For Trump

CHEYENNE — Former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard wants Americans to throw out political party tribalism and labels. She believes a vote for former President Donald Trump will achieve that and allow people to connect on similarities rather than an entire “laundry list of issues.”

“Things are so terribly divided that sometimes we forget about those principles and values that connect us all, and those are the things that we have to stand together to protect,” she told Cowboy State Daily before her speech at the Laramie County Republican Party’s Red State Summit in Cheyenne on Friday evening.

Trump has tried to broaden his appeal to swing and undecided voters, groups he did poorly with in 2020, this election season by branding himself as an anti-establishment candidate who will bring real change. His untraditional style brings legitimacy to this message, but also sometimes puts him at risk with people who don’t like his brash demeanor.

One of Gabbard’s key messages to the roughly 100 people in attendance at the Cheyenne Civic Center was to ignore cable news, political propaganda and labels, and instead focus on the policies and how they matter.

“These are very real things that impact every one of us, regardless of your political affiliation, your political beliefs, and that's where our opportunity lies in this election,” she said.

Who’s Gabbard?

Gabbard served in the U.S. House from 2013-2021. In 2020, she ran to be the Democratic nominee for president, losing out to President Joe Biden.

Gabbard said she chose not to run again for Congress because of the hyper-political partisanship in Washington, D.C.

In 2022, Gabbard announced she was leaving the Democratic Party, accusing its leadership on X (formerly Twitter) of "cowardly wokeness, anti-white racism, (being) hostile to people of faith and spirituality and dragging us closer to nuclear war."

This spring, Gabbard released her book “For Love of Country: Leave the Democrat Party Behind,” which outlines why she left the Democratic Party.

Around the time of her book release, Gabbard also was considered one of the front-runners to be Trump’s pick for vice president.

Although she wasn’t chosen as his running mate, Trump did pick her and fellow Independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be the co-chairs of his transition team in the event he’s elected for another term as president.

This duty involves traveling around the country to support Trump’s campaign, which is what brought her to Wyoming on Friday.

Gabbard believes Trump chose her and Kennedy to be involved with his transition team to send a message of hope and signal how serious he is about bringing historic change.

Both have indicated they’d be interested in working permanently in his administration. This would be a contrast to Trump’s first term, when he surrounded himself with solely conservative and Republican figures.

“This is about building a team of people not based on political party,” she said. “Not based on do you agree on every single issue?”

Where Gabbard and Trump agree is on taking a more isolationist approach to foreign affairs, revamping health care and transgender issues.

Gabbard, who still considers herself an Independent, said some of her political views have changed since she ran for president as a Democrat and then endorsed Biden in that election, but remains steadfast to her adherence to the U.S. Constitution.

“I think it’s good for people to learn from changing circumstances and experiences and to have that assessment of maybe I’ve experienced something new that I hadn’t thought of before,” she said.

When She Was A Democrat

When Gabbard joined the Democratic Party at the age of 21, she said it was much more politically diverse and embraced free speech.

Democratic Vice President candidate and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has said that hate speech and misinformation is not free speech. Similar positions were taken by the Biden administration during the COVID-19 pandemic to try and pressure social media companies to censor scientific misinformation being spread.

“The Democratic Party of today is for censorship,” she said.

Gabbard was vice chair of the Democratic National Committee from 2013-2016, during which time she said she often sparred with 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and others who didn’t like having someone disagree with their policies publicly.

“That’s a big problem,” she said. “It’s one of the reasons why I left the party, is because it used to be a big open tent party that welcomed people with different ideas and views and you could disagree.

“The party now requires total conformity and compliance and everyone walking in lockstep.”

Similar complaints have been made about today’s Republican Party, which is why Gabbard is a unicorn in today’s highly partisan age of politics.

A day after she went on Fox News and criticized Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign in August, Gabbard said she was informed she was placed on a domestic terror watch list.

“They are doing everything they possibly can because they know in this election, President Trump is not going to bend the knee to the swamp establishment of Washington,” she said.

Gabbard, who was a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, warned that Harris would try to exert an image of strength by engaging the military into foreign wars.

She believes Trump is willing to do tough work on diplomacy and meet with the leaders of nations less-than-friendly to the U.S. to avoid wars. During his presidency, Trump drew criticism for his willingness to meet with Russia’s president Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un.

She also believes the Democratic Party is no longer opposed to war and there are no members of the party in Congress standing up to end the Ukraine War. Many Democrats have consistently supported giving Ukraine money for the war, which they only want to end if Ukraine can get back all its land.

The Importance Of The Election

In most ways, Gabbard’s speech would have been more fitting for an audience in a swing state rather than the deeply conservative Wyoming. She had committed to visiting Wyoming last spring before she was ruled out as a VP running mate and became a member of the Trump campaign team.

“I’m spending a lot of time in almost every state across the country over this election, just bringing a message frankly of hope and optimism at a time when things can seem very dark,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “And a reminder of who we are as Americans.”

Although Wyoming isn’t a swing state and is already extremely likely to vote for Trump, Gabbard said Wyomingites still shouldn’t dismiss the importance of their votes in the election. She encouraged the audience to reach out to undecided voters and explain to them why they should vote.

She also said local elections are just as critical as presidential elections because they serve as a mechanism to fight against overreach from the executive branch.

“Every single voice and every single vote will matter,” she said.

Gabbard finished out her speech asking what the audience is willing to sacrifice in their lives to defend freedom.

“Everyone of us has a choice everyday to represent those principles in our conversations and in our relationships and our actions,” she said.

Laramie County GOP State Committeeman Dallas Tyrrell said there was no one better to speak to Wyoming than a former Democrat like Gabbard “because she sees the evil in the party.”

Laramie County GOP Chairman Taft Love agreed and saw Gabbard’s speech as an opportunity to see the presidential election “from all sides.”

State Auditor Kristi Racines and state Sen. Evie Brennan, R-Cheyenne, were also in attendance.

Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.