1. Gerald Michael Gabbard was born on January 15,1948 and is an American politician who is the Hawaii State Senator for District 21 from the Democratic party, since 2006.
28 Facts About Mike Gabbard
1. 2.
Mike Gabbard rose to prominence for efforts to prevent same-sex marriage in Hawaii by passing a 1998 amendment to the Constitution of Hawaii to give the state legislature "the power to reserve marriage to opposite-sex couples" under the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act.
3.
Mike Gabbard, who was born in American Samoa, is the first person of Samoan descent to serve in the Hawaii Senate.
4.
Mike Gabbard's daughter, Tulsi Gabbard, was a Democratic member of the US House of Representatives for Hawaii's second congressional district from 2013 to 2021 and was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020.
5.
Mike Gabbard later switched parties and became the Director of National Intelligence during President Donald Trump's second term in 2025.
6.
Mike Gabbard was born on January 15,1948, in Fagatogo, American Samoa, one of eight children of Aknesis Agnes and Benjamin Harrison Mike Gabbard, Jr.
7.
Mike Gabbard is of Samoan and European descent from both his maternal and paternal ancestry.
8.
Mike Gabbard was a US citizen from birth because of his father's US citizenship.
9.
Mike Gabbard lived in Hawaii as a child and graduated from Choctawhatchee High School in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
10.
Mike Gabbard studied at and obtained a degree in English from Sonoma State College in 1971.
11.
Mike Gabbard earned a master's degree in community college administration from Oregon State University.
12.
Mike Gabbard worked as a head tennis pro at the Kuilima Hyatt Resort on the North Shore of O'ahu in the mid 1970s.
13.
Mike Gabbard was elected to the Honolulu City Council in a nonpartisan race in 2002.
14.
On March 21,2006, Mike Gabbard announced his plans to run for the Hawaii State Senate in West Oahu's District 19, after 14-year incumbent Senator Brian Kanno decided not to run for reelection.
15.
Mike Gabbard, who was born in American Samoa, became the first person of Samoan descent to serve in the Hawaii Senate.
16.
Mike Gabbard's stated reason for doing so was that he believed that he could be more effective to his constituents as part of the majority party in the State Senate, where Democrats have long had a supermajority.
17.
Mike Gabbard became an anti-homosexual activist before the same-sex marriage debate took hold in Hawaii.
18.
Between 1991 and 1996, Mike Gabbard founded the organizations Stop Promoting Homosexuality Hawaii, Stop Promoting Homosexuality America, and the Alliance for Traditional Marriage and Values.
19.
Mike Gabbard became well known for his advocacy for Hawaii Constitutional Amendment 2.
20.
In 2007, Mike Gabbard co-founded the non-profit Aloha Parenting Project with his wife Carol.
21.
Mike Gabbard used to believe that marriage should only be between a man and a woman.
22.
Mike Gabbard apologized for his previous opposition to same-sex marriage and stated that conversations with his daughter Tulsi led to him evolving on this issue.
23.
In 2016, while serving as the Chair of the Water, Land, and Agriculture Committee, Mike Gabbard authored a bill banning the sale of parts and products of endangered species.
24.
In 2018, Mike Gabbard authored legislation that enacted a statewide ban on sunscreens that contained the controversial chemicals oxybenzone and octinoxate.
25.
In 2021, Mike Gabbard reintroduced the Hawaii Cruelty Free Cosmetics Act, which passed the Hawaii State Legislature and would make Hawaii the sixth state to ban cosmetic animal testing, after having previously introduced the bill in 2018.
26.
Mike Gabbard received Cruelty Free International's May 2021 award for Legislator of the Month.
27.
Mike Gabbard introduced and passed SCR44, a resolution which made Hawaii the first state to declare a "climate emergency".
28.
Mike Gabbard is currently the Chair of the Agriculture and Environment Committee.