Ex-Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard to campaign for Trump-backed Kari Lake in Arizona
Arizona #Arizona
Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday is scheduled to campaign for Kari Lake, the Republican nominee for governor of Arizona, just days after announcing she was leaving the Democratic Party.
Lake’s campaign said Gabbard would introduce the gubernatorial candidate at a GOP forum in Chandler, Arizona.
The dramatic swing to the right comes on the heels of Gabbard, who ran for president as a Democrat in the 2020 election cycle, posting a video statement saying she could no longer remain a member of a party “now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness.”
Gabbard has often been at odds with Democratic leaders, despite endorsing Joe Biden in the 2020 race after dropping out. But the former lawmaker from Hawaii will now be campaigning for a Trump-endorsed candidate who has become a prominent election denier in Arizona.
NBC News has reached out to Gabbard for comment.
Arizona governor election set to begin
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Lake repeatedly declined to say during an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday whether she would accept the results of the election next month if she loses to Democrat Katie Hobbs. Those comments follow her earlier remarks that midterm elections could be tainted by fraud.
Other candidates speaking at Tuesday’s GOP forum include Senate hopeful Blake Masters and Abe Hamadeh, who is running for state attorney general. All three of the candidates scheduled to take the stage Tuesday have denied the results of the 2020 election.
Last week, GOP Gov. Doug Ducey and former Vice President Mike Pence, who both rebuffed Trump’s pressure to overturn the 2020 election results, backed Lake and Masters. Ducey, who chairs the Republican Governor’s Association, had previously endorsed Karrin Taylor Robson over Trump’s pick in the GOP primary.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com