Tulsi Gabbard Excluded from DNC ‘Unity’ Ad

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) appears to have been left out of the Democrat National Committee’s newly-released fundraising advertisement calling for “unity” among the party’s crowded presidential primary field.

The ad, shared via the Democrat Party’s official Twitter account Monday, features ten candidates alternating between reading the same message about supporting whichever candidate wins the nomination in July.

The candidates say in the ad asking voters to donate to the DNC’s Unity Fund:

I’m running to be your nominee, but no matter who ends up on that stage as our nominee in the convention, we need the whole Democratic Party to unite if we want to take back the White House and win seats all across the country and deliver a presidency consistent with our Democratic values,” the candidates say in the ad asking voters to donate to the DNC’s Unity Fund.
Unity is what this moment in history demands of us right now because the stakes have never been higher. As Democrats, we know there is so much more that unites us than divides us. And next year, we have the opportunity to make sure that our shared values are represented.

The video features former Vice President Joe Biden; Senaors Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Cory Booker (D-NJ); South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D), entrepreneur Andrew Yang, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (D), former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick (D), and billionaire donor Tom Steyer.

Also excluded from the ad are fellow Democrat candidates former HUD Secretary Julián Castro, Sen. Michael Bennett (D-CO), new age author Marianne Williamson, and former Rep. John Delaney (D-MD). However, Gabbard’s exclusion from the ad is noteworthy due to her polling higher than Patrick and Steyer, both of whom were included in the ad.

The slight is the latest sign that relations between the DNC and Gabbard remain frayed. In 2016, Gabbard resigned as vice chairwoman of the DNC and endorsed Sanders over Hillary Clinton for president. At the time, the Hawaii congresswoman accused then-chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) of attempting to harm Sanders’ bid in favor of Clinton.