Tulsi Gabbard, the primary Hindu-American lawmaker and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, has revealed that she turned down an offer to be Robert F Kennedy Jr’s operating mate in his unbiased presidential bid. Tulsi Gabbard left the Democratic Party in 2022.

“I met with Kennedy several times, and we have become good friends. He asked if I would be his running mate. After careful consideration, I respectfully declined,” ABC News quoted Gabbard as saying.

Gabbard didn’t clarify her causes for rejecting the offer. This info was not beforehand disclosed.

Kennedy had thought of varied people for the position, together with former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura and TV host Mike Rowe.

Kennedy introduced at a rally in Oakland, California, final week that he had chosen Silicon Valley lawyer Nicole Shanahan as his running mate due to her youth and work in well being and synthetic intelligence.

“There were definitely meetings, but it didn’t work out. We talked to a bunch of people. Tulsi’s a rock star no matter what,” an individual near Kennedy advised ABC News.

Tulsi Gabbard’s title additionally popped up when former President Donald Trump was looking for a potential vice-presidential pick.

Gabbard, a former Hawaii Representative, ran an unsuccessful marketing campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2019 earlier than leaving the celebration three years later.

Tulsi Gabbard has written a e-book titled ‘For Love of Country: Leave the Democrat Party Behind’, which is about to be launched this month.

Gabbard criticised the Democratic Party upon asserting her departure, blaming “warmongers” within the celebration “who are driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racialising every issue”.

She has additionally clashed with the celebration’s mainstream on points resembling Florida’s controversial ban on LGBTQ+ subjects in public college lecture rooms, which she supported.

During her 2019 White House run, Gabbard made historical past by turning into the primary girl of color since 1972 to safe a delegate to the Democratic National Convention.

Kennedy and his marketing campaign haven’t responded to Gabbard’s assertion, reported ABC News.