Charles Djou, four years ago, was a major part of the Hawaii political equation as he ran for Honolulu mayor, but came in second with 135,662 votes.
Now he is quietly serving as chief of administrative law at the Army’s Fort Shafter and is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army reserve.
Djou is also one of Hawaii’s prominent conservatives. He last made political news in 2018 when he withdrew from the local Republican Party, driven out because of disagreements with GOP President Donald Trump.
Now he is raising the animosity, saying he will not vote for Trump in the fall election.
In a YouTube video playing on Politico, Djou says Trump has “a problem in his ethics.”
In an interview with me last week, Djou repeated his criticism of the businessman president.
“He is not a conservative. He is a nationalist, he is reckless, unfocused and undisciplined,” Djou said.
“I will not vote for Trump; I will vote for (Joe) Biden,” he added.
Djou’s specific rejection of Trump mirrored his condemnation of the GOP.
‘I am most disappointed by the failure of the GOP to clearly and consistently condemn Trump’s childish behavior. Sadly today, too many Republicans either applaud Trump’s tirades or greet them with silent acceptance. This leads to an implicit ratification by the GOP of Trump’s undisciplined, uninformed and unfocused leadership as a core part of the Republican Party,” Djou said when he left the party.
When Djou first won elective office it was as a Republican, campaigning for a 1998 seat in the state House. Since then he has gone from the youthful rising star in Hawaii’s minority party to becoming its logical best choice for major office.
Djou, 49, went from the state House to City Hall, serving two terms before winning a seat in Congress to serve out the remainder of Neil Abercrombie’s congressional term, when Abercrombie resigned to run for governor.
Djou was later defeated in his re-election campaign by then-state Senate President Colleen Hanabusa.
When he ran for mayor four years ago, Djou had an unlikely campaign team headed by former Gov. Ben Cayetano, Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi and former Federal Judge Walter Heen, all major Democrats.
Today Djou is active in national politics, supporting anti-Trump organizations such as the Lincoln Project.
The larger question for politically active conservatives such as Djou is where and how they fit into Hawaii’s political landscape, now divided between Democrats of many hues and vehemently pro-Trump Republicans, unwilling to accept a conservative who is repulsed by the boorish, racist stances of the current president.
Djou said he doesn’t know where he can fit in.
“I’m a ‘Jack Kemp, bleeding heart conservative,’” he said.
“Republicans are becoming a party associated with a person, not a principle and that is dangerous.
Saying he is equally concerned with Democrats going down what he sees as “a path of the radical left-wing” and the GOP “embracing nationalistic Trumpian politics,” Djou asked: “What happens to people such as myself looking for a sensible middle?”
It is a question to be answered by Djou conservatives deciding how they can vote for a Democrat in this most partisan year.
Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com.
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