Politics of Hawaii

The politics of the U.S. state of Hawaii are typically dominated by the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party of Hawaii was formed in 1900, by supporters of Queen Liliʻuokalani. For the first half of the twentieth century, the Republican Party ruled comfortably, dominating local politics until the end of World War II. After the war, Honolulu police officer John A. Burns began organizing plantation laborers, including many Japanese and Filipino Americans and built a coalition that gradually strengthened the Democratic Party in Hawaii. This culminated in the Hawaii Democratic Revolution of 1954, after which Republican political influence in the islands was greatly diminished.

As a result, Hawaii's congressional politics have been dominated by Democrats since statehood in 1959. The state has elected just one Republican U.S. senator, Hiram Fong, who served from 1959 to 1977, and two Republican House members. The rest have been Democrats. Only two Republicans have been elected governor, and Linda Lingle was the only one to be re-elected, in 2006.

Hawaii has supported Democrats in every presidential election in which it has participated except 1972 and 1984, when incumbent Republican candidates won 49-state landslides. In 2008, Barack Obama, the first candidate to have been born in Hawaii, won the state by his largest margin, receiving 72% of the vote to 27% for his Republican rival John McCain. Obama again won Hawaii by a overwhelming margin in 2012, winning by 71% to 28% over Republican Mitt Romney. Hawaii again gave a higher vote share to Obama than any of the 49 other states. Democratic candidates have continued to carry the state by large margins since.

The Hawaii state government is composed of a bicameral system, with the Hawaii Senate and the Hawaii House of Representatives making up the upper and lower houses.

Hawaii is currently represented in the Senate by Democrats Mazie Hirono and Brian Schatz. In the House, Democrats Ed Case (HI-1) and Jill Tokuda (HI-2) represent the state.

Hawaii is part of the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii in the federal judiciary. The district's cases are appealed to the San Francisco-based United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Each of Hawaii's four counties is governed by a mayor as follows:

City and County of Honolulu - Rick Blangiardi
County of Hawaii - Mitch Roth
County of Maui - Richard Bissen
County of Kauai - Derek Kawakami