{"id":19068,"date":"2012-08-16T19:35:19","date_gmt":"2012-08-16T19:35:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/?p=19068"},"modified":"2012-08-16T19:35:19","modified_gmt":"2012-08-16T19:35:19","slug":"hindu-american-tulsi-wins-democratic-primary-in-hawaii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/hindu-american-tulsi-wins-democratic-primary-in-hawaii\/","title":{"rendered":"Hindu-American Tulsi wins Democratic Primary in Hawaii"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>Tulsi Gabbard, 31, a Hindu American, has won the Democratic Primary from the second Congressional District in Hawaii.<br \/>\nGabbard is set to create history becoming the first Hindu ever to be elected to the U. S. Congress in November, as there is virtually little opposition to her in a predominantly Democratic district. She got 55.1 per cent of the votes polled as to 34.3 percent won by her main opponent Mufi Hannemann.<\/h4>\n<figure id=\"attachment_19069\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-19069\" style=\"width: 239px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Tulsi-Gabbard.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-19069\" title=\"Tulsi Gabbard\" src=\"https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Tulsi-Gabbard-239x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"239\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Tulsi-Gabbard-239x300.jpg 239w, https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Tulsi-Gabbard.jpg 518w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 239px) 100vw, 239px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-19069\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tulsi Gabbard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h4>\u201cI am privileged to be able to work for the people of Hawaii in whatever capacity,\u201d she said after her rival conceded defeat. She has not visited India yet, \u201cNo, not in body, but in mind and heart. I look forward to visiting India as a member of the U. S. Congress. As a Vaishnava, I especially look forward to visiting the holy sites of Vrindavan,\u201d she had told rediff.com earlier.<br \/>\nCurrently, she is a city council member in Honolulu. The primary winner is assured to be elected in November, as the district is heavily Democratic.<br \/>\nInitially, her main opponent, former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann led her in the polls with 45 points.<br \/>\nThough a practicing Hindu and a strict vegetarian, she is not an Indian. Her father Mike Gabbard, who is a state senator, is from American Samoa. Her mother Carol Porter Gabbard, a white American, is a practicing Hindu worshipping Lord Krishna. Her father is a Catholic.<br \/>\nDalip Singh Saund, the first Indian to be elected to the Congress in the 60s, was a Sikh. Bobby Jindal was a converted Christian, originally a Hindu.<br \/>\nIt seems destiny has chosen Tulsi to represent the Hindus in the Congress. She promises to be a representative for all the Indians in the U. S. \u201cBased on my strong affinity for India and Indian culture, as well as my warm love for Vedas, the country and its people, I will always make myself available to hear the concerns of the Indian diaspora and do my best to be of assistance.\u201d<br \/>\nShe said her religious belief created only minor issues in the campaign and that she had ignored it.<br \/>\nAs for the major issues in the election, she is clear, \u201cThe economy and jobs. Here in Hawaii, people have a hard time making ends meet. And of course protecting the environment is very important to the people of Hawaii\u2019. \u201cThe natural beauty and purity of our islands has a very spiritualising effect on our souls. And also, tourism is Hawaii\u2019s main economic engine, and our beautiful environment is the main reason visitors come. And to that end, I will be making a big effort to reduce the burdensome visa restrictions on visitors from India and throughout South Asia and Asia,\u201d she said.<br \/>\nTulsi was born in 1981 in Leloaloa, American Samoa, the fourth of five children to the Gabbards. At the age of two, the family moved to Hawaii, also the birthplace of President Obama. Hawaii is comprised of a majority of Christians with a significant number of Buddhists (10-15 per cent of the population).<br \/>\nThe number of Hindus living in Hawaii is relatively small, with only two Hindu temples in the entire state, the Iskcon Temple on Oahu and the Aadheenam Temple Kauai. (Excerpt from rediff.com)<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tulsi Gabbard, 31, a Hindu American, has won the Democratic Primary from the second Congressional District in Hawaii. Gabbard is set to create history becoming the first Hindu ever to be elected to the U. S. Congress in November, as there is virtually little opposition to her in a predominantly Democratic district. She got 55.1 per cent of the votes polled as to 34.3 percent won by her main opponent Mufi Hannemann. \u201cI am privileged to be able to work for the people of Hawaii in whatever capacity,\u201d she said&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":19069,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"gutentor_comment":0,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Tulsi-Gabbard.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19068"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19070,"href":"https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19068\/revisions\/19070"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guyanatimesinternational.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}