On May 7, 2026, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard addressed the 2026 Independent Women's Policy Summit in Washington, D.C. The transcript of her remarks is below.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard

Transcript of Remarks

2026 Independent Women's Policy Summit

Washington, D.C.

May 7, 2026

Thank you so much for the introduction. Carrie, thank you for your leadership and all of the hard work that goes into making this day possible, and, of course, thanks to all of you for being here and for your support of the tremendous work that IWF does. I'm trying to remember what year I kind of first started getting involved. It might've been around the end of my time in Congress, but it's been incredible to see the trajectory just over the last five, six years and the impact that IWF has had, and how much it has sparked and inspired people, women and girls, people all across the country, to take it upon themselves to really be the solution and confront the grave and serious and historic challenges that we are facing today. I think the focus of this summit today is around leadership, which is essential.

I have found too often in my time in politics, now that has spanned over 20-something years, my time serving in the military in different capacities, you know, the challenge and opportunity of leadership is a perpetual one. I find it now in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Intelligence Community across the board. And too often, what I see, especially in some of our young women and girls, but even some of the moms groups that I've met over the years, is a concern or question around not being qualified to lead.

Whether it's running for office or taking on an organization, or going and testifying before Congress or before a school board meeting, people who haven't done it before, never imagined themselves to be in this position, often say, “Well, you know, someone else can do it. Someone else will be better to do it. Someone else is more experienced. Someone else has the right qualifications and meets that criteria, for example, to be a candidate for office.”

And my response to them is always to focus on the most important characteristic that we should all look for in a leader, and that we should strive for in the leaders whom we choose to elect and that we choose to support. And that characteristic is someone who cares. If you care about serving and making a positive impact on your community, your state, your country, you will therefore then care about telling the truth.

You'll care about standing up for what is right. And the courage that we see, especially in this vitriolic political environment that we are in, that courage is necessary because of the radical responses that we all get when we do very simple, common-sense things like stand up for the truth and speak the objective truth.

And obviously, the foremost example, and the one that's been really gratifying to see the progress around, is the truth of the biological difference between men and women and girls and boys, and that, you know, girls should be able to play sports against girls. It's a perfect case study. I think the fundamental issue is so much greater than this example because this whole fight and this whole challenge is impacting a generation. But when you look at what's really at stake, the existence and acceptance that there is such a thing as objective truth is really the issue. And so this is the current fight over this, and the progress that's been made here in the US and around the world with a lot of these international sporting entities is truly incredible. But it all drives down to the implications of what happens when we live in a society that rejects the existence of objective truth.

It erodes and removes the guardrails that must exist in our society, that there is such a thing as truth, that we expect our lawmakers and our leaders to understand that there is such a thing as truth, and that we expect our media to understand that there is such a thing as truth. How does a journalist, a true, honest journalist, which is a rare breed these days–I know we have a few in the room, thank you for being here. How does a journalist report on the truth if they, the journalist or their outlet, reject the existence of truth? You can apply this almost universally across the board, but all of this comes back to courage. When we care about each other, when we care about our country, when we care about the consequences of the decisions being made by policymakers, when we care about our Constitution, our fundamental freedoms, the bedrock of this republic that we are citizens of, that is the qualification that we need to step up and lead and to make that difference.

I went through my own version of facing these constant challenges and questions in the ways that I have tried to and chosen to serve over the last few decades, where people constantly told me, “You are too young. You are not qualified. You don't have an Ivy League degree. You don't have a degree at all,” back in the day. But I– I'm grateful to my parents for this, they homeschooled us– I'm the fourth of five kids. They instilled this ethic of service and being the solution to a problem that you see, that no matter the detractors who came my way, even those who meant well, who said, “Oh, you know, you're too young to run for Congress.” I was 31 at the time. “You're too young to run for Congress. You know, the other guy who's running, he's got all the money, he's got all the endorsements, he's gonna win. Just hang back and try again in 20 years,” And they thought they were giving me good advice and were being helpful. And I smiled, and this is Hawaii, so I said, “Thank you, aloha.” And then proceeded to ignore their very helpful feedback.

But they were looking at all of the wrong things. They were looking at what they viewed as, like, the political resume, the political establishment requirements, rather, and fundamentally forgetting the most important thing, which is we step up to serve the people, period. And in my race for Congress, that was the big difference. I was running against a candidate who was highly funded, had all the endorsements, and nearly a hundred percent name recognition. He had just run a statewide race and lost. And my seat was essentially a statewide seat. He thought he was gonna win the big final debate night that we had. I remember we were in two different green rooms right next to each other, about to walk out in the debate. I'd known him forever. It's Hawaii, you know, we know everybody. And as he walked out two minutes before me, he was singing a song. He's a former basketball player, probably like 6’8”. And he looked back over his shoulder at me as I was about to walk out, singing the Black-Eyed Peas song. And he looked at me, and he was like, “Tonight's gonna be a good night.”

And I smashed him in the debate… because he took it for granted. He took the people for granted. He took me for granted. And so he didn't prepare. I am a prepper. I did the work, and I came with the goods, and I was running on a very clear platform based on substance and how I could best serve my community. So, fast forward, I had like 3% name recognition when we started this race. Five months before the election, I had, I think, 20% in the polls. He had 60%. And there were a couple of other candidates who kind of had broken out the rest of the margins. He was already interviewing staff that he planned to hire for his office in Congress at that point in time. And then I ended up winning the race and beating him by a 22% margin.

We spent the same amount of money, but arguably, on paper, he was the candidate who was definitely going to win. As he was interviewing his future staff, I was going island by island, holding town halls, knocking on doors, standing outside the supermarket, introducing myself to people, and saying, “I'm interviewing for a job to work for you. How can I serve you? What do you care most about? Here's what I care about and here's what I stand for.” And I point to this story often as I'm talking to folks who are thinking about running for Congress, who are thinking to themselves, like, “How can I get involved? I don't even know where to start.” And usually always going back to, “Well, I don't have the resume that's required. I don't have the money. I can't self-fund. I don't know how to pick up the phone and call a donor to ask for support.”

And I tell them my story because it's a real one. Because that was me. That was me. And when we focus on having that servant's heart guiding us, inspiring us, giving us that courage every single day, and focusing on those whom we are trying to serve and positively impact, this goes back to the vision that our founders had for our country. Truly, how do we have a government of, by, and for the people? We have real people, not those who've been handpicked by the powers that be. We have real people who care and who want to serve, who are stepping up and responding to one of my favorite verses in the Bible from Isaiah 6:8, when the Lord says, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” “Here I am, Lord, send me.” He didn't ask for a resume. He didn't say, “Well, are you qualified?”

He said, “Who will go for us?” He said, “Here I am, send me.” And that, to me, is the fundamental question. It's one that I ask and reflect on myself on a daily basis: how can I best serve? How and where can I make that most positive impact? And continuously reflecting on that throughout my life, it's taken me in a lot of different interesting directions. It's taken me in different political positions. I started out in the State House when I was 21 years old, and then to Congress. When I got elected to Congress, the Democratic Party somehow rolled out the red, red carpet. I was named a, you know, the rising star. CNN was talking about who was gonna play me in the movie. True story. I was like, “I don't know what's going on here.” Vogue Magazine wanted to do a spread and, like, all of this stuff.

And I was like, “Hmm, this is interesting. How can I use any of these opportunities as a platform to be able to make the positive impact that I wanted to make?” The problem with them was that they really thought I was gonna be a puppet for them, and that whatever they were dangling in front of me was somehow going to entice me into allowing them to control what I was there to do. It didn't last long. Within a few months, then-President Obama was coming to Congress and wanted to start a new war in the Middle East, this time in Syria. And I was the first Democrat, that's maybe the only one, I don't remember, but the first Democrat who came out publicly and opposed his request and gave very specific reasons why. I was on the House Foreign Affairs Committee at the time, which was based on my own experience of having deployed to the Middle East twice and understanding the implications of what he was asking Congress to approve.

And the fact that the very most basic questions that we should always ask, especially when you're talking about sending our men and women in uniform into harm's way, is what is the objective? At that time, John Kerry was the Secretary of State, and he came before the committee, and I came in with an open mind, saying, “Hey, if this is something we have to do to secure our nation, we have to take a hard look at it.” But when I asked what was the objective, they said, “Oh, well, we wanna go in and deliver a punch in the gut to the Syrian regime. Not a pinprick, not a decapitation. We wanna deliver a punch in the gut.” I was like, “Okay, that's not a clear objective. How does that serve our best interests as a country? How does that secure our nation? How does that make the American people more safe? And what's the plan?” I asked. “When they punch back, or their friends punch back?” “Oh, we don't think they will.” Like, also not a good plan. “We don't think they will.”

But by taking that step and asking the tough questions, doing the work, and coming out in opposition to President Obama's request at that time, the red carpet was quickly rolled up and taken away. I got a very quick call from the White House saying, “How dare you go against your president?” They had no questions and no statements to make about the substance of the issues and questions that I had raised. And that was the first of many examples that would follow over the eight years that I was in Congress, where I realized that they weren't actually interested. You know, they made a big deal. “I'm a veteran. I deployed twice to the Middle East.” They weren't actually interested in hearing what I had to say or drawing on the experience that I had. And ultimately it became about their own, their own partisan politics.

It became evident again, you know, the Democratic Party used to call themselves the party of women, the party that champions women. I found out at a number of women's events that they only like a certain kind of woman that will say certain things and had no problem dismissing other women, women candidates, women of color. I experienced this a lot when I ran for president in 2020. There was a forum where they had all of the female candidates there, and it was called She The People. The Washington Post covered the event, and I was not mentioned anywhere in the article. And so I had my press person call 'em up. They're like, “Hey, Tulsi was there.” He was like, “Yeah, I know.” Like, “Okay, so why wouldn't you report all of the female candidates that are there?” He was like, “I have no obligation to do so.”

One of many examples I could tell you about the bias of, you know, the so-called mainstream media. But all of it, again, pointing back to my initial message, that when we have people who care more about power than they do about the people, then everything starts to fall apart. We've got tremendous leaders now, and I give so much credit to President Trump and the cabinet that he's assembled, really hand-selecting people to lead each of these different agencies and saying, “Okay, I'm giving you this privilege of service and giving you this responsibility to lead. Now go out and deliver results.” And as you all know, the man does not rest. He is sprinting every single day, and he expects those results to be delivered, but he empowers the leaders on his team to actually go out and do the work.

And when we look at the high tempo across the board, whether you're talking about Kelly Loeffler, who's, you know, featured this week, it's Small Business Week. But what a lot of people don't see is the tremendous work she's doing behind the scenes. You have Sean Duffy, who's going out and really, really doing a long-overdue revamp of the Department of Transportation, which, by the way, little side story there, he shared with me in his first conversations with his predecessor, Pete Buttigieg, you know, they're doing a handoff. And Pete told him, Pete told Sean Duffy, he's like, “Don't worry about it. The organization basically runs itself.”

But you look at what Sean has done, you know, Sean and Rachel are great friends, but you look at what Sean has done, what he has uncovered with the infrastructure that we all rely on just to travel across the country, the safety of Americans. And you look at what happens and the difference when you have leaders who care and who are leaning into that mission of service, focusing on that mission every single day, versus those who are in it just for the optics or just for the resume bullet. And that's where IWF has done and continues to do such tremendous work in bringing up, supporting, and empowering leaders across the country.

In 2024, I had the opportunity in the fall to go. I was in Reno and went to watch one of the girls' basketball and volleyball games there. And this was one of the teams that was taking a very principled and courageous stand to not play against any of the volleyball teams that had a biological male on the women's team. And it was so cool just to be there to offer our support. Markwayne Mullin was there with me to offer our support to these young women. And then to see them, we invited some of them. This was right before the Madison Square Garden rally, the final, the big Trump rally. And to then see them go on and start doing media interviews, and to see them then go on and start to do things they never ever thought that they'd be capable of doing. And seeing how they, along with Riley Gaines and all of these incredible young women, really demonstrated the power of their voice and their personal experience that helped to trigger and inspire truly historic change that we're continuing to see unfold.

And that's really where, when we look at the opportunity that all of you, whether you're donors or supporters, or your candidates, or those who are working on policy issues on the Hill, while we may not see results as quickly as we would like, this is a moment that requires all of us to not only look at ourselves in the mirror every day and say, “How can I do more? How can I be a part of the solution?” But in doing so, recognize that the decisions and the actions that we take, whether we realize it or not, are inspiring others to do the same. Where they may say, “If she can do that, maybe I can too.” I've been grateful to have experienced this over and over and over again and to help be that supporting voice, to encourage people to step outside of their comfort zone, to not be afraid of that discomfort, and to remain truly rooted in a spiritual foundation, recognizing the great responsibility that we have.

People don't believe me when I tell them this, but my younger sister would attest to it. But growing up, fourth of five, my head was buried in books. I did martial arts. I was surfing, but I was extremely shy and am a textbook introvert. And so when I first decided to run for office in Hawaii when I was 21, I will never forget the first speech I gave. It was in an elementary school cafeteria in Waipahu on the island of Oahu. And I had to give a three-minute speech telling people, “This is who I am, this is why I'm running.” It seems pretty simple. I felt so sick, so sick leading up to that. I was standing outside that cafeteria door. They had all these candidates sweating beyond belief as they went through.

I had borrowed my mom's dress to wear to this. And I don't remember anything that I said, to be honest, but I did not walk out–I did what I had to do–I did not walk out of there thinking like, “Easy, I got this.” It took years of knocking on doors and experiencing those nerves, experiencing that fear, that anxiety, that insecurity, not once, not twice, but every single day as I knocked on thousands of doors in that district every single day. And after each conversation, realizing, “Oh God, that was so nice. They were just such nice, nice people. What's the problem?” And then all of the anxiety comes back in, like, “Oh, the next one's gonna be the tough one,” then the next one, then the next one. And ultimately, I had to confront this because it was not productive, and I had to figure out a way through it.

And I definitely, you know, learned the hard way. But I had to ask myself like, “What's your problem? What are you so afraid of? Why is this causing you so much anxiety?” And what I realized was that all of my fears and anxiety were ultimately coming from a pretty selfish place of like, “What if I look stupid? What if they ask me a question I don't know the answer to? What if I don't say the right words?” But in all of my own responses to that, it was all about I, I, I. That word was repeating itself way too much, especially given what I was there to do. And my mission was, “How can I serve you? What can I do for you and your family? Tell me about your concerns.” And so when I talk about a spiritual foundation, for me, that was a spiritual realization that my aim and my goal and my purpose is to try to be of service to God, and how best to serve God than to be of service to God's children.

And to try to make that positive impact. And it changed everything for me from where I used to walk into a room like this, just like, “Nobody talk to me. I'm just gonna stand in the corner and, you know, do what I gotta do, and then I'm gonna leave.” But instead of that, being able to walk into a room like this and recognize like, “Hey, I have the opportunity to share a kind word, to share respect, to share thanks, to maybe share a story that might encourage someone else,” and see what can I offer and how can I make a positive impact, even if I'm only having an interaction with someone for 30 seconds, that could be the thing that changes that person's outlook or causes them to ask a question or may have that positive impact. And that, to me, is really collectively, yes, what IWF is about and has been making a positive impact for so long in this country. Yes, for women and girls, but we can't talk about women and girls without talking about our husbands and our fathers and our brothers and our society as a whole.

And so I've personally gone through my own journey and learned the hard way and run into a bunch of brick walls. But I'm grateful for IWF because I didn't have a group of supporters and mentors and those who were out doing the tough work and having the tough conversations on the TV when I was learning and figuring out how can I best serve. So all of that is really just to say, I'm grateful to be here and really grateful for the work that IWF does and the support that they are getting from all of you, however you are contributing to this cause. We face some of the greatest challenges right now to the fundamental fabric of our country. And it is up to every single one of us as citizens of this great country to be the one who steps up and says, “Here I am, send me,” and every day asking, “Okay, I'm doing things I didn't think I would do. What more can I do? How can I best serve? How can I make a greater impact?”

And we are making that impact, whether it be individually but certainly collectively. We've seen the power of change when enough patriots, leaders, and citizens who care stand up for what is right. Stand up for common sense, stand up for the truth, and stand up for those fundamental principles that make this country the great country that it is, those principles enshrined in our Constitution as they are being challenged every single day. Thank you all so much for the opportunity to be here and share this time with you. Thank you.

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