Tulsi Gabbard to campaign for Kari Lake, Blake Masters in Arizona

Tulsi Gabbard, the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate who announced last week she was leaving her party, will campaign alongside Arizona Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake and Arizona Republican Senate nominee Blake Masters on Tuesday.

Lake’s campaign made the announcement in an email on Monday night that Gabbard will join the two Republicans and the state party’s nominee for attorney general, Abe Hamadeh, at a young Republican forum in Chandler, Ariz., which is located in the suburbs of Phoenix.

The event will mark the end of a whirlwind week for the former Hawaii congresswoman after she announced last Tuesday she could no longer remain in the Democratic Party, less than three years after she ended her campaign for the party's presidential nomination.

Democrats “demonize the police but protect criminals at the expense of law-abiding Americans,” Gabbard said in her announcement. “And above all, [Democrats] are dragging us ever closer to nuclear war. I believe in a government that’s of the people, by the people and for the people. Unfortunately, today’s Democratic Party does not.”

Gabbard has criticized the Biden administration for months, but she quickly made her departure from the party clear as she began campaigning for Republicans within days, appearing on Monday with Don Bolduc, New Hampshire’s Republican Senate nominee.

Bolduc, Lake and Masters were all endorsed by former President Trump in their primaries. 

“Big if true,” Lake tweeted in response to TIME reporter Eric Cortellessa, who first reported Gabbard’s appearance. Lake’s campaign publicly confirmed the event moments later.

Lake and Masters are facing close races in next month’s midterm elections. 

In the Senate race, polls have shown incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) with the edge in the purple state against Masters. 

The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the contest as a “lean Democrat,” but Republicans maintain hope that a pickup in The Grand Canyon State can help them flip Democrats’ razor-thin majority in the chamber.

Lake’s gubernatorial contest against Katie Hobbs, Arizona’s secretary of state, is rated as a “toss up” by Cook Political Report, and the campaign has turned particularly nasty with weeks to go until Election Day.

Hobbs has refused to debate Lake, calling her a conspiracy theorist for her support of unfounded claims of election fraud. Lake has returned the attacks by calling Hobbs a racist, also describing her as extremist for Hobbs's pro-abortion stance.