Gov. David Ige regularly thanks the people of Hawaii who have sacrificed and worked together over the past two years of COVID-19, but choked up at the end of his eighth — and last — State of the State address Monday when he spoke in a nearly empty ceremonial room at the state Capitol and wondered to himself when he’ll ever be able to hug and thank people in person.

“It has been just such a hard time,” Ige told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Tuesday via Zoom, just after removing a mask. “I did truly appreciate the support from everybody. We would normally have people in the chamber (for the annual State of the State address) and would be able to thank them personally, but were not able to do so publicly. … That’s what made it really emotional.”

The conclusion of his annual address gave viewers a rare glimpse of emotion from a two-term governor who has remained calm and stoic despite being pummeled from all sides over the past seven years in the age of social media — and especially during the past two years of COVID-19, which led to mass layoffs, a nearly stalled tourism-reliant economy, the highest unemployment rate in the country and widespread illness, deaths and fears that Hawaii’s health care system would be overrun, with the nearest medical facilities half an ocean away.

So Ige wanted to express his appreciation in person Monday for how political and business leaders helped Hawaii respond and rebound from the pandemic after the state saw its pre-pandemic tourism arrivals record of more than 10 million annual visitors fall “99.9%” essentially overnight after he asked tourists to stay away to help control the spread of COVID-19 across the islands.

Arrivals quickly fell from 35,000 a day “to like a few hundred — and most of them were crew and pilots,” Ige said.

In the fallout, even hotel executives offered support, he said.

“There never was this kind of thing of ‘You can’t shut us down, you can’t take these actions,’” Ige said. “They realized this pandemic was different, and they were willing to do their parts.”

Nearly 18 months into the pandemic, right before Labor Day and the traditional end of the summer tourism season, a surge of cases from the delta variant pushed Hawaii’s health care system to “the brink of being overwhelmed,” Ige said. “That was the hardest time.”

Asked about how he sleeps with all of the ongoing concerns, especially during COVID-19, Ige said, “My sleep has just been erratic. … My sleep has been sporadic.”

Even before the pandemic, the governor had to deal with hurricanes and natural disasters in 2018 from record rainfall that led to devastating mudslides on the north shore of Kauai, followed immediately by the eruption of Kilauea Volcano on Hawaii island.

Infamously, Ige was blamed when the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency on Jan. 13, 2018, sent out a false alert of an imminent nuclear attack, leading to widespread panic, national embarrassment and death threats against Hi-EMA employees.

And Ige took much of the ire from Native Hawaiians and others upset over now-stalled plans to build the Thirty Meter Telescope atop the summit of Mauna Kea, among many other Native Hawaiian concerns.

Immediately after his State of the State address Monday, leaders of the state House of Representatives — who have not always backed the titular head of their Democratic Party — praised Ige’s speech and appreciated his display of emotion. Speaker Scott Saiki told reporters that history likely will be kind to Ige’s two terms in office.

There is still one more year of governing to go for Ige, and in his speech he laid out bold initiatives for a legislative session that some members have already called historic for its ambitions.

Ige proposed $100 refunds for every Hawaii taxpayer and another $100 for each of their dependents, along with the state’s largest investment in technology by proposing to connect all of the neighbor islands to broadband, including Molokai and Lanai.

Asked by the Star-Advertiser what he would like to accomplish in his final 12 months in office, Ige listed several proposals from his speech, but in particular hopes to see broadband expanded, especially to enable more younger workers to remain in Hawaii and telecommute to good-paying jobs far away, especially with tech companies.

Ige’s three children with wife Dawn Amano-Ige live on the mainland.

Asked about his legacy, the governor said, “I do think it will stand up over time.”

Even after seven years in office, Ige’s moment of emotion Monday was “extremely rare,” according to Colin Moore, director of the University of Hawaii Public Policy Center.

Moore, who watched Monday’s State of the State address, felt that the moment at the end of Ige’s speech was heartfelt.

“I found that touching, too,” Moore said. “Think of how people reacted to the end of the speech. It was touching, and it generated a lot of goodwill. I don’t think anyone has ever doubted that Gov. Ige cares deeply about Hawaii and that he wants our children to be able grow up and live here. He genuinely takes that personally.”

Perhaps Ige’s popularity would have been higher over his two terms had he shown passion or anger over issues such as the Navy’s Red Hill fuel contamination of Oahu’s drinking water, Moore said.

But that’s just not his style.

“He’s cautious,” Moore said. “He’s extremely cautious. He likes to carefully consider all of his options — and perhaps that’s been a source of a lot of the criticism.”

Asked about life after politics, Ige — age 65 — told the Star-­Advertiser he has no specific plans but called himself a “techie at heart.”

“I’m pretty sure I will be active in certain things,” he said.

Whatever challenges Ige takes on after leaving office likely will be deliberate and absent of broad emotions, according to Moore.

“Here is the best way to describe Gov. Ige: He is always an engineer,” Moore said. “He approaches problems in a cool and methodical way, and you don’t often get a sense of passion or anger. In fact, I can’t think of a single moment where that ever happened.”