State Rep. Mark Takai displayed solid support from Kapolei to Mililani to Hawaii Kai as he cruised to the 1st Congressional District’s Democratic nomination Saturday night over six other candidates.
He will now face former U.S. Rep. Charles Djou, the Republican nominee, in November’s general election.
An analysis of the primary election results shows Takai grabbing the greatest number of votes in 20 of the 1st Congressional District’s state House districts, while state Senate President Donna Mercado Kim took eight of those districts and state Sen. Will Espero won one House district.
Takai won nearly every district from Hawaii Kai to downtown Honolulu. Only from there westward does Kim, the initial front-runner for the nomination, begin picking up more support in her home-base districts of Kalihi, Salt Lake and Moanalua. Kim also did well in heavily Filipino districts such as Waipahu and Ewa Beach.
The only House district where Espero finished on top was in District 40, the Ewa Beach-Iroquois region that he calls home.
Breaking the numbers down by precincts, Takai won 80 precincts, Kim grabbed 27, Espero took five and Councilman Joey Manahan captured one. Espero and Manahan, like Kim, have Filipino blood.
The data suggest that if Espero and Manahan had not run, Kim would have finished closer overall since the most recent Hawaii Poll, sponsored by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and Hawaii News Now, shows Kim with broad Filipino support.
For example, in all five of the precincts that Espero won Saturday, Kim finished second or tied for second with Takai, who either finished tied for second with Kim or was third. Likewise, in the one Kalihi precinct Manahan won, Kim finished a close second while Takai finished third.
The final summary report shows Takai beat Kim by a solid 16 percentage points. Honolulu City Councilman Stanley Chang, who represents East Honolulu, finished third with just more than 10 percent of the vote.
Behind Chang, in order of finish, were Councilman Ikaika Anderson, Espero, Manahan and human rights activist Kathryn Xian.
Djou, who got his political start representing East Honolulu in the Legislature and then the City Council, won the Republican primary Saturday against Allen Levene by an overwhelming margin, receiving 91 percent of the vote.
In 2010 Djou won a nonpartisan, winner-take-all election to fill the remaining six months of the term vacated by Neil Abercrombie, who resigned to run for governor. Among those Djou defeated were Ed Case and Colleen Hanabusa.
That fall, Hanabusa won the Democratic primary and subsequently beat Djou in the general by 6 percentage points. Hanabusa beat Djou in the 2012 rematch by 9 percentage points.
Hanabusa chose to challenge U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz’s re-election bid this year instead of seeking re-election.
