Hawaii

Gov. Josh Green, a Democrat, was re-elected by 45.3 points over Republican Gary Cordery. His running mate, Derek Kawakami, the mayor of Kauai County since 2018, becomes lieutenant governor.¹ There was no Senate race, and Democrats kept both of the state’s U.S. House seats: Ed Case won by 48.9 points and Jill N. Tokuda by 33.0.

Set against the 2024 presidential vote, the governor’s race ran 22.2 points further toward the Democrats, and most of the difference was on the Republican side. Green drew 89 votes for every 100 Harris won here; Cordery drew 54 for every 100 of Donald Trump’s. The votes counted for governor so far come to 93% of the 2022 total and 74% of the 2024 presidential vote.

The move was close to uniform across the islands. The Honolulu metro area, which cast 66% of the state’s 2024 vote, went from D+21.7 to D+43.9, a move of 22.3 points. The Kahului metro area on Maui moved least, 20.4 points, from D+25.9 to D+46.2. The rest of the state moved most, 22.7 points, and ended at D+48.7.

No county changed sides: all four voted Democratic in both years, and none moved toward the Republicans. The largest move was in Kauai County, which went from D+19.5 to D+48.2, a change of 28.7 points on 23,952 votes. It is the county whose mayor was on the ticket as Green’s running mate.¹ Honolulu County went from D+21.7 to D+43.9 on 249,618 votes, and Hawaii County from D+28.3 to D+48.9.

Democrats keep the governor’s office and both chambers. The Senate is unchanged, with Democrats holding 22 of 25 seats. In the House, Democrats went from 41 seats to 44 and Republicans from 10 to six, Honolulu Civil Beat reported; our count could not read every legislative district, so these totals are Civil Beat’s. The Office of Elections issued its final count on November 10, and election contests can be filed with the Hawaii Supreme Court until November 23.^{2, 3}

The remaining House seat went to Pa’ele Kiakona of the Green Party, who won District 14, in Lahaina, by 119 votes over Democrat Sne Patel. It was the first time a Green Party candidate was elected to the Hawaii Legislature, the Garden Island reported. The incumbent, Rep. Elle Cochran, had switched from Democrat to Republican in March and finished third.^{2, 3} With six seats, House Republicans remain below the 11 that House rules require to force roll call votes on the floor, and Civil Beat reported that no Republican now holds a legislative seat representing the neighbor islands.² The constitution sets a veto override at two-thirds of all the members to which each house is entitled, which is 17 senators and 34 representatives. Democrats were past that mark in both chambers before the election and still are.^{2, 4}

The election left the machinery of maps and elections where it was. A nine-member reapportionment commission draws both the legislative and the congressional districts, and its plans become law after publication. The Senate president and the House speaker each select two members, the minority parties in each house name a member who selects two more, and those eight choose the chair. Ron Kouchi remains Senate president.^{2, 4} The chief election officer is not elected either: a nine-member Elections Commission, appointed by the presiding officers and minority leaders of the two houses, employs the officer and reviews the job after each general election.⁵

Green said the day after the election that housing would lead his second term, with more homes along the rail line and a plan to restore abandoned houses. “You’ll see me announce some major additions to our housing team in the coming weeks,” he told Hawaii News Now on November 4. He named the bonds voters had just approved as a way to pay for infrastructure in advance.⁶

Hawaii sets a higher bar for constitutional amendments than a majority of those who vote on them. An amendment needs a majority of the votes tallied on the question, and that majority must be at least 50 percent of all the votes cast in the election, so a ballot left blank on the question counts against it.^{4, 7}

Both of this year’s questions cleared it. Question 2 lets counties issue bonds, a form of tax-increment financing, to pay for infrastructure in designated districts. It drew 67.3% of the yes and no votes in our count and 61.7% of all ballots in the final official summary, where blank votes were 8.1%. Question 1 extends from 30 to 60 days the time the Senate has to consider a judicial appointment made when lawmakers are out of session or near the end of one. It drew 63.0% of the yes and no votes and 57.9% of all ballots.^{7, 8}

Two counties elected mayors. In Maui County, Richard Bissen won with 54.8% of the vote to 42.5% for Yuki Lei Kashiwa Sugimura. In Kauai County, Council Chair Mel Rapozo won with 56.5% to 37.4% for Bernard Carvalho Jr.; he succeeds Kawakami and takes office on December 1.^{1, 8} Neither the Hawaii Supreme Court nor a school board was on any ballot. The governor appoints justices from a commission’s list with the consent of the Senate, the commission decides whether they are retained, and the governor appoints the single statewide Board of Education.⁴

Republicans held none of the offices in our count before the election and won none. The closest of the Democratic wins was Jill N. Tokuda’s, by 33.0 points, and no county voted Republican for governor. What Republicans kept was in the Legislature. They held all three of their Senate seats: in District 20, around Ewa Beach, Republican Bob McDermott beat Democrat Markus Owens 50.8% to 46.9%. In House District 42, Republican Rep. Diamond Garcia won by 3,002 votes to 2,872. Civil Beat reported that the party’s House losses were seen less as part of the national movement toward the Democrats than as the product of local circumstances and familiar candidates.^{2, 8}

Brian Schatz’s Senate seat will be on the ballot in 2028, in a state that voted D+23.1 for president in 2024 and D+45.3 for governor this year. The constitution bars anyone from being elected governor for more than two consecutive full terms, and Green was first elected in 2022, so he cannot be elected again when the office is next filled, in 2030.^{1, 4} The Legislature convenes on January 20.² The districts used this year stay in place until the next reapportionment year, which the constitution fixes at every tenth year after 1981: the commission will be formed again in 2031.⁴