The Democratic primary race to represent urban Honolulu in Congress comes down to whether U.S. Rep. Ed Case’s experience — and overall voting record — will be enough to sway Democrats angry over President Donald Trump and his policies.
Case’s main opponent, state Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole, said he was convinced to enter the race to represent Hawaii’s 1st Congressional District by voters who want a stronger Trump critic to join the other three members of Hawaii’s congressional delegation, who regularly vote against Trump’s policies and speak out about his actions.
Progressive Democrats are furious over Case’s vote in favor of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act that critics say further erodes U.S. voting rights. Case was one of only four House Democrats to join all House Republicans in passing the SAVE Act.
But Case also voted against Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” along with all other House Democrats.
Case has said that voters need to look at his entire Congressional voting record, which began in 2022, before making up their minds.
Keohokalole (D, Kaneohe-Kailua) is not up for reelection to the Senate this year and faces little political peril by taking on Case in the Aug. 8 Democratic primary.
He has criticized Case for declining to debate.
Keohokalole calls himself the underdog against an incumbent with high name recognition in a midterm year that will likely draw far fewer voters compared to presidential election years.
Republicans have slight majorities in both the House and Senate. If Democrats regain control of either chamber, how forcefully they push back against Trump and his policies will determine whether the final two years of the president’s last term are tied up in hearings, investigations and even a potential third impeachment.
The Democratic race to
represent urban Honolulu
in Congress suddenly became a competitive, two-person
race in May after state Rep. Della Au Belatti dropped out
to instead run for lieutenant governor against Kauai
Mayor Derek Kawakami in the Democratic primary.
Belatti and Keohokalole, both left-leaning Democrats, likely would have split the anti-Case Democratic vote.
Now it will be a showdown between moderate Democratic voters and more left-leaning,
anti-Trump Democratic voters.
The other Democrats challenging Case are Jennifer Booker, Ben Fatula and Nicholas Kiswanto.
Neither of Hawaii’s two U.S. Senate seats are up for election this year.
U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda has no significant challenger in her primary race to return to Congress representing rural Oahu and the neighbor islands.
The other Democrats
running in the 2nd Congressional District primary are Kirill Basin, a Maui business owner; Greg Guithues, a Hawaii island retiree whose campaign website features him holding a hand-painted sign that reads, “Tax Billionaires Away;” and “ALOHA Utopia” YouTuber Steven King.
If she wins, Tokuda’s opponent in the Nov. 3 general election will be state Sen. Brenton Awa, a former Honolulu television journalist whose populist appeal and busy social media posts helped send him to the Legislature in his first run four years ago. Awa (R, Kaneohe-Laie-Mokuleia) has no Republican challenging him in the primary.
The nonpartisan 2nd Congressional District candidates are Randall Terry and Edward A. Codelia, whose spartan campaign website teases, “Solutions for a Smarter Future. Stay Tuned!”
Awa often posts his own videos on subjects involving his district and the state that generate many online views. But whether he can win over Democratic voters across the state in the general election will be tested against Tokuda, who goes to the neighbor islands regularly during her frequent trips from Washington, D.C., to visit her two high school-age sons and husband in Kaneohe.
She was also a regular presence on Maui following the Aug. 8, 2023 wildfires that killed 102 people and burned most of Lahaina.
