ANALYSIS: Who is supporting Tulsi Gabbard?

Hillary Clinton warns about Russian interference;

Tulsi Gabbard strikes back with strong words

Tulsi Gabbard, who is struggling in her presidential campaign, is using accusations of Russian support to breathe new life into her long-shot run for POTUS.

Polling between 1% and 2%, Gabbard is unlikely to win the Democratic nomination to run against Republican Donald Trump. But Hawaii's congressional representative is getting a lot of press -- aleit, all for the wrong reason.

There is a growing concern among Democrats that Gabbard might become the Jill Stein of 2020. With alleged support of Russia, Stein, running as a presidential candidate for the Green Party in 2016, was able to draw enough votes from Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton to give critical states to Trump.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Edited Oct. 30 to clarify that Clinton said "Republicans" were grooming a candidate.

Clinton said that the Republicans were grooming a Democratic candidate for a run for a third party candidacy to split the 2020 vote to help Donald Trump. The Guardian reports the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee believes Tulsi Gabbard could fill that role.

Without naming Gabbard, Clinton said on the podcast Campaign HQ with former Obama aide David Plouffe, ” “She’s the favorite of the Russians,” 

"They have a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting her so far.”

Reporters asked Clinton’s spokesman whether the Senator was referring to Gabbard and he said: “If the nesting doll fits.”

Gabbard, who split with the Democrats in 2016 and endorsed Bernie Sanders run for president, is now running about 12th in the polls in the race for the Democratic nomination in 2020.

Gabbard had harsh words for Clinton on Twitter.

“You, the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long, have finally come out from behind the curtain.”

Clearly, the Clinton inference got to the candidate, who is usually unflappably smooth despite her poor polling numbers and

In a profile in The Atlantic, reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere wrote about Gabbard:

"Many high-level Democrats I spoke with for this story, who insisted on anonymity to share their true feelings about her, suspect that Gabbard is up to something other than actually trying to win the party’s nomination—even if they can’t quite identify what her goal is. These are people who have been wary since Gabbard became a Fox News favorite for criticizing Obama’s foreign policy. They believed that their distrust was vindicated when Steve Bannon brought her in for a meeting with then-president-elect Donald Trump just two weeks after the 2016 election, which was one of Trump’s first meetings with a Democrat. To this group, Gabbard looks like Jill Stein, who also talked about progressive politics and peace, but whose 2016 Green Party run was, to them, a self-centered campaign that blew a crucial hole in Hillary Clinton’s chances, eating up money and getting Russian support along the way.

Most of the evidence of Russian support for Gabbard is circumstantial but a link has not been proven Although Moscow's interest in Gabbard is apparent.

Gabbard’s campaign has been promoted by Russian state-owned media and a number of alt-right websites and defended on Twitter by the Russian Embassy, according to the Associated Press.

On Friday and Saturday, Gabbard refused to disavow the support she’s seen from Russian actors and alt-right site. Instead of responding to direct questions about possible support from Russia, as a counterattack, Gabbard chose to hurled insults and challlenges via social media.

Tulsi Gabbard lets off steam with a round of mixed martial arts. Watch the video here.

Asked by The Atlantic about the support for a story published Thursday, Gabbard said, “I don't have any explanation for these things, other than the fact that the world and other countries, including Russia, are in agreeance that we are in a better place in the world when we're not on the brink of nuclear war.”

Russia's RT news agency often features Gabbard's campaign, according to The Atlantic. The Russian Embassy in South Africa has also tweeted in defense of her, and Russian bots have reportedly boosted her campaign online.

At one point right after the Democrat's first debate in June, some polls suggested that Gabbard was getting a huge response over the other 20 candidates that appeared on the two-night event.

Based on reports from NBC News, now we know why she did so well in those unofficial post-debate polls:

"Users from pro-Trump communities on 4chan and Reddit implored fellow members to vote for lower-polling candidates in online polls, specifically Tulsi Gabbard and Bill de Blasio, in the hours after Wednesday’s Democratic debate — a sign that digital manipulation efforts related to U.S. politics and elections remain very much alive.

"Users on 4chan’s anonymous far-right /pol/message board repeatedly posted links to polls across the web, encouraging one another to “blow the polls out” for Gabbard, the congresswoman from Hawaii who has developed a substantial support base among many of its users.

"The posts pointed users toward polls on national news websites like the Drudge Report, The Washington Examiner, and Heavy.com, but also polls from local news providers like NJ.com, which posts from several newspapers in the state.

“GIVE HER YOUR POWER,” read one 4chan post from 1 a.m. Thursday, pointing to a screenshot of the still-active Drudge poll showing Gabbard leading."

Gabbard repeated to The Guardian an earlier promise that she will not run as an independent or third-party candidate if she doesn’t win the Democratic nomination.

“I’ve been very clear, I will not be leaving the Democratic party, I will not be running as an independent or a third-party candidate,” Gabbard said. “I am running as a Democrat to take our party back, away from the control of people like Hillary Clinton and the warmongering and corrupt, powerful establishment and return our party into the hands of the people. Make it so the Democratic party is once again a party of, by and for the people, a party that will fight for the people, fight to protect the planet and that will fight for peace.”

Gabbard has also received unsolicited support from Trump supporters. She receives positive coverage on Fox News and is often featured in the right-wing Washington Examiner. 

Gabbard is also supported by the Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, which she has  strongly disavowed. Despite rejecting Duke's support, she remains close to Niko House, a noted conspiracy theorist who believes the mass shooting in Las Vegas was an intelligence operation meant to distract from the Harvey Weinstein scandal — and who is also, by far, the most successful digital fundraiser for her campaign, according to a recent announcement from the Hawaii Democrat’s presidential campaign staff.

SCREEN CAPTURE

Tulsi Gabbard, left, appears on Niko House's (center) opening page on his website 

Clinton's assertions may backfire. Since the Gabbard-Clinton clash, interest in Gabbard's campaign has reportedly ticked up in Iowa, according to Time Magazine, drawing support from Clinton-haters. The Hindu American is fundraising off the Clinton remarks, according to several news outlets.

Despite the obstacles in her way, Gabbard told AP she’s “continuing to use every platform possible to reach voters directly” when asked about her path to the nomination, and wouldn’t predict how she’d finish in Iowa, where she only has a staff of three. But Gabbard suggested that might not matter — even if she doesn’t have enough delegates to win, “we’re taking this all the way to the nomination.”

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AAPI VOTE 2018: Trump's nightmare: South Asian American declares her intention to run for Maryland's governor

Krishanti Vignarajah is running for Maryland's governorship.

ONE GOOD THING having Donald Trump as 45, he's inspired more women to run for public office.

Having a sleazy, misogynistic, accused sexual predator as our country's leader has inspired a record number of women to take matters into their own hands and seek elected office.

2018 is shaping up to be a big year for women in politics.

EMILY's List, a group dedicated to helping elect pro-choice Democratic women, saw a hugejump in the number of women showing interest in running for office around the country. According to Vogue, 920 women expressed interest to EMILY's List from the beginning of 2015 to the end of 2016; more than 16,000 have done so in 2017 alone. That's massive.

Meet Krishanti Vignarajah: Trump's worst nightmare and a candidate for governor for the State of Maryland.

"I hope Marylanders will agree the best man for the job is a woman," Vignarajah said when she declared candidacy.

“We live in a day where the president of our country thinks everything I am is what’s wrong with America,” she told the Baltimore Sun last Aug. 9. “I’m a woman. I’m a minority. I’m an immigrant and I’m a new mom. I think each of those aspects of my identity provides a valuable perspective that will color and shape what I talk about on the campaign trail.

She faces an uphill battle because she is relatively new, said Todd Eberly, an assistant professor of political science at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

“She basically represents everything Trump is not,” said Deckman, who researches women in politics. “She is young, she is the daughter of immigrants. She worked for the Obama administration and the Obamas are extremely popular in Maryland.”

"I am running for Governor because I am worried my daughter will not have the same opportunities my parents gave me when they brought our family here when I was a baby girl."

Vignarajah's story is yet another retelling of the American Dream.

Krish with her husband Collin O'Mara and daughter Alana.

The 37-year-old Baltimore resident told Cosmopolitan about her family's journey (they fled Sri Lanka on the brink of civil war when she was nine months old for the U.S. with $200 in their pockets) and reflected on whether they would even be allowed to enter the country had their trip happened in 2017 instead of 1980.

"President Trump, he can demonize immigrants to our country, but the truth for me is there's a family just like mine out there who applied, and they waited their turn, and they want to work hard and pay their taxes and raise a family and live a decent and safe life here," Vignarajah told Cosmo. 

"Just as immigrants before them have for generations. I know that that story is not only personal to my family, but it’s fundamental to the American experience."

Vignarajah has never held elected office before but she has a history of involvement serving the public. She has long promoted gender equality. She worked in the State Department as a senior adviser to Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, and most recently served as Michelle Obama’s policy director in the White House. There, she spearheaded the former first lady’s signature initiative Let Girls Learn, which helps give girls in developing countries opportunities for education.

She lists education, the economy, drug addiction, infrastructure, and the environment among her priorities. Just as important, she says, "We need a new generation of leadership that will make progress at home, while standing up to a White House that threatens the very values that unite and define us."

She will be challenging Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan, Jr. a Repubican in his first term. He is married to Yumi Hogan, the first Korean/American First Lady in the U.S. Hogan hasn't declared his intention if he'll run for a second term. 

Education was important to her family, both as a value and as an employer. Both of her parents were teachers in Baltimore's public schools. Her father recently retired after 37 years as a high school teacher. 

It was no surprised that Vignarajah excelled in school, graduating with a bachelor's and masters from Yale as magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. She was a Marshall Scholar at Oxford University, where she received an M.Phil. in International Relations, before returning to Yale Law School, where she served on the Yale Law Journal.

Five other Democrats are already vying for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. They include Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker; Alec Ross, a tech entrepreneur and Obama State Department alum; Maryland state Sen. Richard Madaleno; attorney James Shea; and Ben Jealous, a former NAACP president. The primary is in June 2018.

Being a politician and the path to getting elected is a rough, often dirty, road but Vignarajah tells other women considering office not to be paralyzed by indecision. If you can't commit to that first decision, then maybe it is not for you.

But for Vignarajah, she listened to her heart. "I know that I should run because I’m worried that my baby girl and all of our children would not have the same opportunities that I had growing up in Maryland."

Below: Vignarajah's commencement address at Hood College was voted as one of the country's most inspirational commencement addresses in 2017.

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Guest Blog: Having a woman in charge is a sea change in American culture

By Maryam Chishti
AAPI Millennials for Hillary

GROWING UP, I always thought that I was lucky to have been born a woman. I liked “girly” movies more than those action movies catered to boys. I thought that us women were lucky to have such a variety of clothes and shoes to wear, and know how to cook so well. But lately, in the light of this election, I have begun to see what being a women in America is really about.

Here, you have the most qualified, competent, and clever presidential candidate in the history of American elections. On the other side, you have a terrifying, lying, ego hungry man who wants America to be great again with only terrifying and unjust plans on how to do so. This shouldn’t be a contest … but it is.

If Hillary Clinton were a man, she would have already won this election. But people feel uncomfortable with the idea of a woman in charge. Sometimes, I realize that I do too. The idea is so unfamiliar to us that we look for ways to put her down. And I’m guilty of this as well. I watch Hillary talk with incredibly ease about complex policies, and all I can think about is that her voice sounds a little harsh, and why does she only wear pant suits and never dresses? 

While on the other hand, Bernie Sanders yells every time he gets on a podium and Donald Trump thinks a good plan to defeat ISIS is to “bomb the sh*t out of them.”

Then I think about my own life. How even though I love politics, I never thought there was a place for me at the table: because growing up there wasn’t. The only place for a women in politics seemed to be the wife of a politician. 

In high school, women debaters, women in student government, were never taken seriously. I saw it happen to my peers, and then myself. I watched in awe as another girl and I, the only girls speaking at our Model UN conference, tried to advocate for nuclear bomb shelters in war torn areas. In return, we would only get comments back on our apparel and appearance. 

The culture around women in leadership, women trying to draft policies and implement change, is that it is not our place. And I fell for it, because it is all I have ever known. But I won’t any longer.

Because it’s time. Hillary Clinton needs to be President not only because her opponent is an embarrassment and threat to women everywhere, but because America needs to see a women in the highest office in the land. I think back to the Democratic National Convention, where I was one of the lucky people who got to hand out signs on the floor of the convention center. And when they were about to announce the new Democratic nominee, I ran to the foot of the stage. 

As Martha Fudge declared that Hillary Clinton is the new nominee, and the crowd erupted in cheers, I bent down and began to cry. I was so aware of the enormity of that moment, and here I was; 18-years old, an undeclared college freshmen with a whole life ahead of her sitting on the floor of the convention hall as a new chapter in history was made for the very first time. And in that moment, I realized that anything I wanted to achieve was possible. Hillary, after fighting for 30 plus years, had made it so.

And on that day, I again realized how lucky I was to have been born a woman.

Maryam Chishti is an Indian/American student who was born and raised in New York. She is currently taking her first semester of college off to work for the Hillary Campaign. She will vote for the first time this November.