Former Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard has said that she would be open to serving in a second Trump administration, after condemning Democrats for forcing her out of the party.
Gabbard said that her place on Trump’s transition team was her top priority at the moment, but that she would want to continue working with the former president after Election Day.
Appearing on Fox News to discuss the Democratic Party‘s approach to female voters, Gabbard was asked toward the end of the conversation by host Brian Kilmeade if she would want to serve in the former president’s hypothetical new Cabinet.
The erstwhile Democrat said: “We are all very, very focused on winning this election, getting out and reaching and speaking the truth about Kamala Harris‘ record and Donald Trump‘s record to voters. That will be an important task that will continue after Election Day.”
When pressed by Kilmeade—who said: “That’s not a no. That means that you’d be relatively open to it, right?”—Gabbard replied that she would be.
Newsweek contacted Gabbard’s team and the Trump campaign for comment via email.
Donald Trump at a town hall with former Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on August 29. The former Democrat has said she’d be open to serving in Trump’s future Cabinet.
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Gabbard endorsed Trump in August and criticized the Democratic Party for no longer having a place for her. The former congresswoman previously ran for the party’s presidential nomination in 2020, clashing on the debate stage with then-Senator Kamala Harris over the Californian’s record as an attorney general.
Gabbard is not the only former Democrat open to a Cabinet position in the wake of a Trump victory. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who contested the Democratic primary early in this election cycle before becoming an independent candidate, endorsed Trump in August after dropping out of the race.
In his endorsement announcement, Kennedy highlighted food and drug policy as areas he looked forward to working on with Trump, indicating a potential interest in a related Cabinet role.
Harris has also suggested that she would be open to appointing unlikely political allies to her administration, saying that she would explore appointing a Republican to her Cabinet if she wins in November.
Speaking to Dana Bash in an interview on CNN, the vice president said, “I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my Cabinet who was a Republican.”
Mitt Romney, John Kasich and Susan Collins are among the top candidates floated for the job.
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