Wearing lei and a loaned pair of the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye’s cuff links, Democratic U.S. Rep. Mark Takai, Honolulu’s new congressional representative, took a ceremonial oath of office Friday in front of nearly 400 local supporters and dignitaries — including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
The event, held in Honolulu’s downtown federal court building, took place 10 days after Takai took office in Washington.
Friday’s gathering gave hometown supporters the chance to celebrate Takai’s taking office and to offer their congratulations, said U.S. District Chief Judge Susan Oki Mollway, who administered the ceremonial oath in a federal courtroom.
"I’m here to honor Mark Takai and to say thank you to the people of this district for sending him to the Congress of the United States," Pelosi said in a press briefing immediately following the ceremony. Asked whether she was also in town for a Takai fundraiser, Pelosi responded with a smile that "there might be" such an event.
Takai, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. National Guard, spent 20 years in Hawaii’s state House of Representatives. Last year he beat six other Democratic opponents in the 1st Congressional District primary race. He then beat former U.S. Rep. Charles Djou, a Republican, in the October general election.
On Friday, Mollway spent several minutes acknowledging all of Takai’s former state legislative colleagues and the Honolulu city leaders in attendance. No other members of Hawaii’s congressional delegation attended, but representatives from their offices were there. The crowd watched the ceremonial oath from two courtrooms, with a closed-circuit television feed showing the ceremony in one of the rooms.
"You, all of you, friends and family, have made me the man that I am today, and I pray that moving forward in my new role, I do all of you proud," Takai told them.
Takai was named earlier this week to the House Armed Services Committee, and on Friday, Pelosi told the crowd that Takai had already attended his first meeting with that body. Takai’s fellow Democratic House delegate from Hawaii, U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, also sits on the committee.
Pelosi further told the crowd Friday that Takai will be invited to join a special escort committee for another Hawaii native — President Barack Obama — when Obama delivers his annual State of the Union Address on Tuesday. The news appeared to genuinely surprise and delight Takai.
He told the crowd that he planned to work with the rest of Hawaii’s federal delegation to protect retirement benefits for seniors, to reform the country’s immigration system and to support the Native Hawaiian community as they grow in political influence.
Takai grew emotional when he mentioned he was wearing Inouye’s cuff links. Recalling a recent quiet stroll through the U.S. Capitol, he said that he "walked in the footsteps of giants who had come before." Takai later said that the late senator’s family had loaned them to him.
"That’s what you have now: many new people carrying on that tradition of greatness in Hawaii," Pelosi said at the ceremony.
In her comments to the press afterward, Pelosi, a supporter of same-sex marriage, said she feels "pretty optimistic" about news Friday that the U.S. Supreme Court would take up the issue later this year. "I’m hopeful that the court will rule correctly and based on what is happening in the country as well as decisions they have made before," she said.
