Tulsi Gabbard announces 2020 presidential run

Tulsi Gabbard has announced her decision to run for the White House in 2020.

Gabbard, the first Hindu lawmaker in the US Congress, is the second woman from the Democratic party to enter the presidential race. Senator Elizabeth Warren had earlier announced her decision to take on president Donald Trump.

Gabbard, a four-time Democratic lawmaker in the US House of Representatives from Hawaii, told CNN on Friday (11): "I have decided to run and will be making a formal announcement within the next week".

"There are a lot of challenges that are facing the American people that I'm concerned about and that I want to help solve," she said. Health care, criminal justice reform and climate change are some of the issues she is passionate about.

"There is one main issue that is central to the rest, and that is the issue of war and peace. I look forward to being able to get into this and to talk about it in depth when we make our announcement," Gabbard, an Iraq war veteran, said.

If elected, Gabbard would be the youngest ever and first woman President of the United States besides being the first non-Christian and first Hindu to occupy the top post.

Interestingly, Gabbard is not the only Indian-American expected to take on Trump in 2020. Recently, Senator Kamala Harris said she would decide on her 2020 bid soon, and added that the country was ready for a woman of colour.

"We have to give the American people more credit, and we have to understand that the American public and the people of our country are smart people, who will make decisions about who will be their leader, based on who they believe is capable, who they believe has an honest desire to lead, to represent, to see them, to be a voice for them even if they have no power," Harris said, according to CNN.

"Those are the kinds of people who we are as a country. And so the pundits can talk all day, and all night, and there's a lot of chatter about which demographic will do this or that. It has been my life's experience that the American people are smart and they make decisions about what's in the best interest of their household, their family and their community. And I have faith that in 2020, and in any other election, that will be their motivation when they vote," she added.