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Hawaii Congressman Kai Kahele told House leadership Friday that he will not seek reelection and instead will run for governor.
Sources told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that Kahele will make his announcement May 7, likely in his hometown of Hilo.
Previously this week there were unconfirmed reports that Kahele would leave Congress after his first term and sit out an election cycle or two. But Kahele told House leadership Friday that he plans to run for governor and will not return to Washington, D.C., sources said.
Kahele’s office did not respond to a Star-Advertiser request for comment Friday.
He has repeatedly declined to respond to questions about a potential run for governor, although during a Feb. 9 appearance on the Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight Hawaii” livestream program, Kahele said, “Stay tuned and we’ll see. I’m giving serious thought to this.”
If true — and speculation about Kahele’s future in Congress has been rampant for months — Kahele’s next move could affect three key races just ahead of the Aug. 13 Democratic primary election: governor, lieutenant governor and Kahele’s 2nd Congressional District seat, which represents rural Oahu and the neighbor islands.
On Tuesday former state Sen. Jill Tokuda filed federal election papers to seek Kahele’s seat instead of running for lieutenant governor, where she was among a crowded race with four other candidates but no front-runner.
If he joins the governor’s race, Kahele would face Lt. Gov. Josh Green, the early front-runner in both fundraising and voter approval; business entrepreneur and former first lady Vicky Cayetano; and former Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell.
Whoever emerges from the primary election will go on to the Nov. 8 general election.
The relatively short window is critical because candidates such as Kahele cannot use federal election funds in a state race, such as during a campaign for governor. And candidates who already have raised campaign funds for state races cannot spend them on a federal race for Congress, although they can return donations and ask donors to support them in a different race.
Pundits are already speculating about which current or former elected officials will join Tokuda in running for Kahele’s open seat, along with the possibility of additional candidates currently running for lieutenant governor.
CNN quoted an anonymous source and reported, “The congressman has been telling colleagues that he intends to run for governor, according to a person close to him. That source said Kahele will make an announcement about his political future in early May.”
Kahele won the 2020 general election to fill the vacancy left by Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who decided to run for president. He is the second Native Hawaiian to represent Hawaii in Congress; the late Sen. Daniel K. Akaka, a family friend, was the first.
Kahele has attracted recent negative local and national media coverage for his absenteeism from Washington and his record of having other representatives cast votes in his name, an allowable practice used by both Republicans and Democrats known as proxy voting.
Kahele, the father of three girls, lives in Hilo with his wife, Maria.
Kahele and his family were in Washington for his swearing-in ceremony, the Jan. 6, 2021, siege on the U.S. Capitol, and the inauguration of President Joe Biden two weeks later. He told “Spotlight Hawaii” that the deadly riot “had a major impact on my wife and my kids.”
“As a family, we’ve decided that that’s not someplace right now that we would like to raise our family in and that the best place that my family can be is here in Hawaii, in Hilo,” he said.
Kahele played volleyball for the University of Hawaii and was a member of teams that went to back-to-back NCAA Final Four tournaments in 1995 and 1996.
Following the death of his father, state Sen. Gil Kahele, Gov. David Ige appointed Kai Kahele to fill his father’s seat in 2016, representing Hilo. Kahele won reelection in 2016 and 2018.
He fought in operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom as a C-17 Globemaster III and C-130 Hercules pilot, and remains a lieutenant colonel in the Hawaii Air National Guard, based out of Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
Kahele also flies Airbus A330 wide-body planes on domestic and international routes for Hawaiian Airlines.
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