Hawaii’s voters have seen a steady stream of politically active Democratic governors, plus four years with a Democratic president attuned to the needs of our state — but finally the White House is controlled by the Republicans.
Does this mean that the political spoils now fall on the decidedly less-than-dominant local Republican Party?
Ballotpedia, the politics web page that bills itself as the “encyclopedia of American politics,” describes Hawaii as a state dominated by Democrats who “control both of Hawaii’s U.S. House seats, both U.S. Senate seats, the governorship, and has supermajorities in both houses of the state legislature, controlling nearly 90% of all legislative seats.”
So how can there now be signs of GOP life in a state that hasn’t seen a Republican governor in more than 14 years?
Oddly enough, it may be because Republican President Donald Trump is like nails on a blackboard to Hawaii voters, just irritating. And nowhere close to being a vote magnet.
As soon as he revealed his new federal funding plans, Trump’s policies immediately provoked a Democratic uproar.
“The government shutdown that Donald Trump just ordered is illegal and unconstitutional,” Hawaii’s senior U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz said in a congressional floor debate last week. He added that Trump “is not a king and we do not live in a monarchy.”
U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono and U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda issued a joint statement last week after Trump’s federal freeze attempt was blocked.
“Eight days into his dictatorship, President Trump has mandated a federal funding freeze that will cost Hawaii hundreds of millions in federal support,” they wrote. “Even a ‘temporary’ freeze will create a lapse in funding for disaster relief efforts in Lahaina, as well as crucial programs like Medicaid, Head Start, nutrition assistance programs like SNAP, WIC, school lunch programs and many more.”
Trump’s policies may cost the local GOP what little support it has in Hawaii, according to former GOP state legislator Beth Fukumoto, who in an interview blasted the president.
“I hope people pay attention and push back. At the moment, I don’t think it’ll have much impact on the GOP in Hawaii, but once people start to realize the impact he’s having on our schools, health care, etc., Hawaii Republicans could struggle to maintain the gains they made in 2024,” said the former politician who now serves as a political consultant.
Colin Moore, director of the Public Policy Center at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, sees Trump’s policies faltering in Hawaii.
He said that Trump’s push to “embed a conservative ideology and ban diversity programs plus cutting school funding over curriculum content and rolling back LGBTQ+ protections does little to address the economic concerns that drive many of his supporters in Hawaii.”
Instead, it will push away voters who would take a GOP ballot because they like Trump’s pro-business economic plans.
Moore concludes that “it risks alienating the very people who were open to voting Republican based on economic frustrations rather than cultural grievances.”
Just being like Trump is not enough. Hawaii’s GOP still must tell local voters what it will accomplish for Hawaii and give voters real hope.
Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com
