Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez said Wednesday that his group had received assurance from Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) last week that she will not run as a third-party candidate for president in the 2020 general election. Speaking at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast series, Perez said Gabbard “and every single candidate running for president” understood the importance of remaining supportive of the Democratic ticket. He said the committee reached out to all campaigns last week and that Gabbard’s “reaffirmed” the pledge she had taken earlier in the cycle to run as a Democrat. Those assurances come weeks after former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she believed that Republicans were grooming Gabbard to run as a third-party candidate in the general election. Perez said he had not spoken to Clinton about her remarks, which sparked a round of pushback from some corners of the progressive universe for their suggestion that Gabbard would be doing the bidding of Russian officials by playing the role of spoiler. Gabbard has said she will not seek re-election to Congress.
