Sherry Menor-­McNamara, president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce Hawaii, plans to announce today her candidacy for lieutenant governor, she told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

Menor-McNamara said she wants to bring fresh ideas and perspectives as a political outsider who represents Hawaii’s businesses, especially when it comes to addressing the COVID-19 pandemic and Hawaii’s economic recovery.

“I am officially announcing,” she said. “The past couple of years have been challenging, obviously for small businesses, families and students. It’s been a defining moment in our state and the urgent need to address this current situation for me was the right time to jump in and run for lieutenant governor. We’re going to need fresh ideas and not recycle old ones. That’s not good for our economic recovery.”

Menor-McNamara will run as a Democrat and pledged to work closely with whomever becomes Hawaii’s next governor and serve as “a bridge to the communities, the people — and be the collaborator, the convener.”

She grew up in Hilo where her mother, Naomi, still runs a travel agency that she started 40 years ago. Her father, Barney Menor, served in the state House in the 1960s before serving as deputy managing director for Hawaii County under then-Mayor Herbert Matayoshi.

Menor-McNamara was class president, student body vice president or student body president every year from the sixth through 12th grades at Hilo Union Elementary, Waiakea Intermediate and Waiakea High.

But she’s never run for public office until now, and certainly not in a statewide race.

The open seat for lieutenant governor has so far attracted former state Sen. Jill Tokuda, who represented the Windward side and lost to current Lt. Gov. Josh Green in the 2018 Democratic primary; former City Council Chairman Ikaika Anderson, who resigned his Windward Council seat in 2020 three months before his term was scheduled to end; and state Rep. Sylvia Luke (D, Punchbowl-Pauoa-­Nuuanu), who serves as chairwoman of the powerful state House Finance Committee.

In order to strengthen Hawaii’s economy, Menor-McNamara said, “we can’t have the same type of ideas, the same perspectives and, frankly, the same leadership in order to have a strong and innovative economic recovery plan.”

The winner of the August Democratic primary needs to win only a plurality of votes in order to advance to the following general election in November.