Home | All Candidates | Arms Trade Treaty | Arms Sales to Saudi Coalition | Firearms Export Oversight

Tulsi Gabbard

Born in 1981, Tulsi Gabbard entered public service early, elected to the Hawaii state legislature in 2002. She joined the Hawaii National Guard in 2003, and she still serves in the military, having risen to the rank of major in 2015. She resigned her office in the state legislature in 2004 and continued her political career in the Honolulu City Council from 2011 to 2012. She has served in Congress as Representative from Hawaii since 2013.

Campaign Website

Arms Trade Treaty

Gabbard’s position on this issue is unknown.

Arms Sales to Saudi Coalition

Gabbard explicitly supports ending arms sales and military support to the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen. She has spoken in favor of S.J. Res.7, the War Powers Resolution which would have ended U.S. military support for Saudi Arabia in the House, and also has protested arms sales. She cosponsored H.R. 643, which would end arms sales to Saudi Arabia, as well as H.J. Res. 37, which would end military support. She voted in favor of S.J. Res. 7 when it reached the House (see resource page).

Speech in the House of Representatives, April 4, 2019

“Right now the United States continues to support Saudi Arabia’s genocidal war in Yemen. This support has been ongoing since 2015 and yet has never been authorized by Congress. It must end now.

U.S. support for this war has resulted in dire consequences. Just last week the Saudi coalition bombed a hospital, they’ve bombed school buses, weddings, markets, funerals. Tens of thousands of Yemeni civilians killed. Millions more are in dire need of humanitarian aid, starving and sick without access to food and water or basic medicine. This has created the worst humanitarian disaster in the world.​

We’re voting later today on an important bill to finally, finally end U.S. support for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen. We need to put politics aside. Lives are at stake. We cannot afford to delay. I urge my colleagues to recognize the urgency with which we must act to vote against any attempts to delay or block this bill and vote to pass S.J.Res.7 today.”

Firearms Export Oversight

Gabbard’s position on this issue is unknown. She supports banning assault-style weapons domestically, having cosponsored a House bill on this topic, but has not directly addressed broader export oversight rules. She did not vote on an amendment to the FY 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, H.Amdt. 512, which would prohibit the President from transferring any items from the U.S. Munitions List.

Statement on campaign website, 2019

"Tulsi has a consistent record of advocating for sensible gun control. She has long called for reinstating a federal ban on military-style assault weapons and high capacity magazines, requiring comprehensive pre-purchase background checks, closing the gun-show loophole, and making sure that terrorists are not allowed to buy guns."