HONOLULU — Long-shot presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard is facing some heat in her heavily Democratic home state of Hawaii for voting “present” on two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump.
Kai Kahele, a Democratic state senator who is running to succeed Gabbard in Congress, said the vote left their congressional district voiceless.
“You don’t get a participation trophy for voting ‘present’ on one of the most crucial votes taken this Congress,” Kahele said on Twitter. “The 2nd District has been left #voiceless once again. This is unacceptable!”
Kahele, who supported impeaching Trump, has been critical of Gabbard for missing many votes while she campaigns for the Democratic nomination for president. According to the website govtrack.us, Gabbard missed 88.7% of the 141 House votes taken in the past three months.
Gabbard announced earlier this year she would not run for re-election to the House so she could focus on her presidential campaign. This decision came after she spent much of the year traveling to Iowa and New Hampshire. Kahele, meanwhile, was busily courting voters across their district which spans suburban Honolulu and largely rural nearby islands.
Sandy Ma, the executive director of Common Cause Hawaii, said Gabbard’s present votes aren’t representative of the people in her district. She said Gabbard “shamed herself.”
“Rather than serve the people of Hawaii who elected her, Rep. Gabbard seems to be courting certain mainland voters and sensationalistic media attention for her flailing presidential campaign,” Ma said in a statement.
Hawaii’s other representative in the House, Rep. Ed Case, another Democrat, voted in favor of impeachment.
Gabbard she was “standing in the center” by voting present.
“I could not in good conscience vote against impeachment because I believe President Trump is guilty of wrongdoing,” she said in a statement. “I also could not in good conscience vote for impeachment because removal of a sitting President must not be the culmination of a partisan process, fueled by tribal animosities that have so gravely divided our country.”
