As shown in Hawaii’s August primary election, with two legislative races ending in flat-out ties, every single vote counts. And every single elected official matters in representing their district and helping to shape important policies for Hawaii.
More than half of the state Legislature’s 76 seats have already been decided, due to uncontested incumbents or primary wins — but 30 state House and six Senate seats are still to be decided in the general. One of those races — House District 43 — is a rematch to break a primary-election tie, a rare same-party general election between two Republicans. See below for endorsements in that race as well as in other select state House match-ups.
>>District 32 (Fort Shafter, Moanalua, Aliamanu, Foster Village, parts of Aiea and Halawa): Elections here have swung back and forth between two contenders. But this year voters should stick with the current holder of the seat, Republican Garner Shimizu. He is facing off with Democrat and former Rep. Micah Aiu, an attorney for the contractor Nan Inc., for the third time.
Shimizu is a co-owner and vice president of Master Sheet Metal Inc. He was part of a bipartisan group introducing House Bill 1973 for a one-year pilot program for in-home health and support services for kupuna, and lists the high cost of living among his top concerns. Shimizu maintains his support for exempting food and groceries from the general excise tax and favors reducing barriers to development to increase housing supply.
>>District 39 (Royal Kunia, Village Park, Honouliuli, Hoopili, part of Waipahu): Democrat Corey Rosenlee, a longtime teacher at Campbell High School, is making another try for this seat, vacated by the GOP’s Elijah Pierick, now a state Senate candidate. This time Rosenlee faces Republican Danny DeGracia, who works for the state Health Department in disease prevention and health promotion.
But it’s Rosenlee who has the better preparation for this job, with broad knowledge of the community and education advocacy, as former president of the Hawaii State Teachers Association and current member of the Ewa Neighborhood Board. He also lists affordability as the defining challenge facing families and favors the increase in housing supply and supports for working families and kupuna. Rosenlee also backs strengthening public campaign financing.
>> District 40 (Ewa Beach and Iroquois Point): Republican incumbent Julie Reyes-Oda, serving as assistant minority floor leader, boasts a deep knowledge of the state’s educational system, having been a teacher in Ewa Beach and Nanakuli. She also served as Leeward chapter president of the Hawaii State Teachers Association. Education is one of her priorities, though she has also produced proposals touching on crime, public land trusts, Hawaiian homelands and campaign finance reform. She also has worked with Democratic colleagues to pass multiple bills as a bipartisan cosponsor. She faces Democratic challenger Rose Martinez, who previously occupied the District 40 seat from 2022 to 2024, and was vice chair of the Culture & Arts Committee.
>> District 43 (Kapolei and Makakilo): This is among the election season’s tightest races, with Republican voters in the primary evenly split between incumbent Kanani Souza and challenger Sheila Medeiros. A recount brought the race to an 842-842 tie — one of two exceedingly rare primary ties (the other was a state Senate race); both headed to tiebreakers to be resolved by lot.
When Medeiros’ name was plucked from a lau hala basket, Souza challenged the result, claiming the plastic balls containing their names were not mixed properly. The Hawaii Supreme Court ruled in her favor, and voiced concern over revelations that two “overage” votes — ballots mistakenly cast by voters who did not live in District 43 — might have changed that election’s outcome. The court ordered this special election — and unlike the Republican- only primary, all district voters can now cast ballots for either Souza or Medeiros.
First elected in 2022, Souza does not yet have a particularly strong record of passing authored legislation — no Republican does in Hawaii — but she is highly successful in cooperating with colleagues from across the aisle. She does not caucus with local GOP, and in 2023 said the assembly felt like a “cult.” Souza’s priorities are district affordability and crime, and she’s joined forces with Democrats to push through bills targeting other issues facing her constituency, including teacher pay, special student accommodations and child welfare. She also has cosponsored health-related legislation, from establishing the Hanai Memory Network Program to creating a comprehensive plan to address hearing loss.
Medeiros is a retired Army lieutenant colonel who lists cost of living, pro-life policies and freedom of speech as her legislative priorities.
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Upcoming endorsements:
>> Thursday: What’s at stake in Congress
>> Friday: Governor, lieutenant governor and statewide issues
>> Sunday: Office of Hawaiian Affairs
