One of Hawaii’s most eligible singles is tying the knot.
U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, the popular Hawaii Democrat who easily won re-election to a second term in November, confirmed Thursday she is engaged and planning an April wedding.
Gabbard, 33, declined further comment when reached by telephone in Washington, D.C.
Details on the groom-to-be were unavailable, though sources said he is a videographer.
Gabbard is congresswoman for Hawaii’s 2nd District, representing rural Oahu and the neighbor islands.
A captain in the Hawaii Army National Guard, Gabbard is among the first female combat veterans elected to Congress and also has the distinction of being the first Hindu representative.
Gabbard, who served in the Hawaii state House of Representatives and Honolulu City Council before going to Capitol Hill, has been featured by various media outlets, including Vogue and Esquire magazines, and has appeared as a frequent guest on cable news programs.
A featured speaker at the 2012 Democratic National Convention, she was later the subject of a 2013 Vogue magazine article that asked, "Is Tulsi Gabbard the Next Democratic Party Star?" It described her as a "tanned 32-year-old with mahogany-brown hair that falls just past her shoulders, a fit surfer’s physique, and a smile so warm that it’s no surprise Web sites have offered polls rating her ‘hotness.’"
This would be Gabbard’s second marriage.
She divorced her first husband and childhood sweetheart, Eddie Tamayo, after returning from one of her two deployments to the Middle East.
In 2011, upon announcing that she would no longer use her married name of Tamayo, Gabbard detailed how the deployment had been hard on her marriage.
"Sadly, Eddie and I became another statistic, another sad story, illustrating the stresses war places on military spouses and families," she said.
