WASHINGTON (AP) — Voting closes Saturday in Hawaii’s state primary, where congressional and legislative candidates are vying for their parties’ nominations.
Hawaii’s Senate and House primaries should set the stage for much-needed safe victories for Democrats in November as the party faces tough races across the country in its bid to control both chambers for the next presidential administration.
At the top of the ballot is the Senate race, where Democrat Mazie Hirono is seeking a third term. He is expected to easily win the primary against retired computer engineer Ron Curtis and salesman Clyde Lewman. Curtis was the Republican candidate against Hirono in 2018 and against Democratic Representative Ed Case in 2020, receiving 29% and 28% of the general election vote, respectively. Lewman ran for governor in 2022 and finished last in the Democratic primary with 0.1 percent of the vote. Hirono’s campaign coffers stood at $2.3 million as of mid-July, while neither challenger has filed a required campaign finance report with the Federal Election Commission.
The Republican nominee wins a six-way primary. Army veteran and community official Adriel Lam and former state representative. Bob McDermott are the only candidates to report raising money for the race, though both trail Hirono. Lam only had $4,400 in the bank in mid-July, while McDermott reported less than $10 in cash reserves. McDermott ran for Senate in 2022, winning 26 percent of the vote against Democratic incumbent Brian Schatz.
Case has also made a nominal Democratic primary challenge in the 1st Congressional District. His opponent is Cecil Hale, who also has not reported his campaign finance activities to the FEC. Case was first elected to replace longtime Democratic Rep. Patsy Mink, who died in office in 2002. She is now seeking a sixth full term. Republican Patrick Largey is unopposed for the Republican nomination.
In the 2nd Congressional District, first-term Democrat Rep. Jill Tokuda and Republican Steve Bond are both unopposed for their parties’ nominations.
In the Legislature, House Speaker Scott Saiki faces a Democratic primary challenge from former state Board of Education member Kim Coco Iwamoto in the 25th District. Iwamoto fell 161 votes short of defeating Saiki in the 2022 primary.
About half of Hawaii’s 25 state Senate seats and all 51 state House seats are up for election this year. Democrats have an overwhelming majority in both chambers.
A look at Saturday’s expectations:
Basic day
The Hawaii state primary will be held on Saturday. All polls close at 7pm local time, which is 1am EDT on Sunday.
What’s on the ballot
The Associated Press will provide the poll results and announce the winners in contested primaries for the Senate, House of Representatives, state Senate and state House of Representatives.
Who can vote
Any registered voter in Hawaii can participate in any party’s primary.
Decision notes
Hawaii has four major counties, and Honolulu County has by far the largest population. Hawaii County is a distant second, followed by Maui and Kauai counties.
In the 2022 Republican Senate primary, McDermott won statewide by 20 points in Honolulu County and narrowly lost three other counties. Curtis won Honolulu County with 41 percent of the vote in the 2020 Republican congressional primary, but that won’t easily lead to votes in the Democratic primary against Hirono, who has been in the state nearly continuously since 1981.
AP does not make predictions and declares the winner only after it has been established that there is no scenario that would allow the trailing candidates to close the gap. If no contest has been called, AP will continue to follow newsworthy developments, such as concessions by candidates or declarations of victory. In doing so, AP makes it clear that it has not yet announced a winner and explains why.
A recount in Hawaii is automatic if the vote margin is less than 100 votes or 0.25% of the votes cast in the race. AP can declare a winner in a race that can be recounted if it can determine that the lead is too great for a recount or legal challenge to change the result.
What do turnout and early voting look like?
As of November 2022, Hawaii had 861,358 registered voters.
In the same year’s primaries, turnout was 31 percent of registered voters in the Democratic primary and 8 percent in the Republican primary. Voting in Hawaii is primarily by mail, although voters have the option of voting in person at a polling station.
By Tuesday morning, of the approximately 816,000 ballots sent by mail, more than 159,000 postal votes had been cast.
How long does the vote count usually take?
For the 2022 state primary, the AP first reported results at 1:55 a.m. EDT, nearly an hour after polls closed. Election night tabulations closed at 5:06 a.m. EDT, with approximately 82% of all votes counted.
Are we there yet?
On Tuesday, there are 87 days until the November parliamentary elections.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the 2024 election at https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.
