Most incumbents fended off challengers in Hawai’i’s primary election Saturday.
While many elected officials ran unopposed in Saturday’s election, dozens of races, including those for the state’s highest offices, were contested. Here’s how those races turned out, based on preliminary data released Sunday by the state Office of Elections.
Kawakami in the lead for Lieutenant Governor
In the wake of Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke’s dramatic fall from grace, the lieutenant governor position was one of the most hotly contested this election, with five Democratic candidates and four Republicans throwing their hats into the ring.
Kaua’i Mayor Derek Kawakami was the most popular of those candidates by far, with 139,935 votes at most recent count, more than 62% of the votes cast for Democrat candidates. His next-closest challenger, Rep. Della Au Belatti, received 55,093 votes.
Kawakami will face Republican Daniel Anthony, who defeated three challengers with 16,930 votes, and non-partisan candidate Kilakila Kamau — who was unopposed in the primary — in November.
Overwhelming support for Green
Gov. Josh Green, meanwhile, handily won his race, receiving 183,872 votes as of Sunday, about 83% of the votes for the four Democratic candidates. The next-closest challenger, Lauren Shim, received only 11,156 votes.
On the Republican side of the race, Gary Cordery will challenge Green in November, having received 36,308 votes in the primary, over 20,000 more than his sole opponent Ken Fujiyama.
And non-partisan candidate Bu Laia Hill defeated three challengers and received 1,320 votes.
Not all incumbents hold on in the Senate
Of the 14 Senate seats up for this year’s election, seven were uncontested in the primary. Of the remaining seven races, two saw incumbents closely challenged or unseated entirely.
In District 10, Rep. Jackson Sayama — who currently represents House District 21, including Kaimukī and Pālolo Valley — defeated incumbent Sen. Les Ihara Jr. Sayama received 6,486 votes compared to Ihara’s 3,074.
The Republican race for Senate District 20 is extremely close. At the most recent count, incumbent Kurt Fevella was only seven votes behind challenger Bob McDermott, leading 1,211 to 1,204.
Meanwhile, the race for District 13 was hotly contested as sitting senator Karl Rhoads was not running for re-election. Tricia Kwai Lin Nakamatsu defeated four other Democratic candidates with 4,454 votes.
Incumbents won the other races. In Senate District 2 on Hawai’i Island, Sen. Joy San Buenaventura received 5,253 votes, defeating her Democratic challenger Tanya Yamanaka Aynessazian, who received 1,911.
In District 14, Sen. Donna Mercado Kim defeated her sole challenger with 3,455 votes against her opponent’s 2,858.
Sen. Rachele F. Lamosao, who was appointed to the 19th District in December following the retirement of former Sen. Henry Aquino, has received 3,883 votes, defeating her single Democratic opponent. Meanwhile, Rep. Elijah Pierick ran uncontested for the same seat, and will face Lamosao in the general election.
And Sen. Chris Lee had 9,263 votes in District 25, far ahead of his sole challenger Bobby Silva, who had 1,641.
Battles for House vacancies
As most contested elections in the House strongly favored the incumbent, the closest battles were in districts where the incumbent was not running for reelection.
In House District 21 — currently held by Jackson, who is running for a seat in the Senate — five Democrats vied for the seat, with Derek Turbin in the lead with 2,631 votes. HIs closest challenger, Jake Morrow, has 1,358 votes.
Four Democratic candidates also fought for House District 26, currently held by Belatti. Ian Ross, with 2,010 votes, is in the lead in that race.
The only races in the House where the incumbent was closely challenged were in District 29 — where Democratic incumbent Ikaika Hussey is currently only 30 votes ahead of challenger John Mizuno — and District 43, where Republican Rep. Kanani Souza is only a single vote ahead of opponent Sheila Medeiros.
Turnout
According to the most recent data published Sunday morning, more than 280,000 votes were cast in the primary, about 33% of the total registered voters in the state. This is about 10,000 more votes than were cast in the 2024 primary election, although nearly 250,000 fewer than those cast in the 2024 general.
Of those votes cast this year, nearly all of them — 274,093 — were cast by mail. Of those, 210,283 were cast for the Democratic Party, and 47,073 were cast for the Republicans.
