Mazie Keiko Hirono is an American lawyer and politician serving as the junior United States senator from Hawaii since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, Hirono previously served as a member of the United States House of Representatives for Hawaii's 2nd congressional district from 2007 to 2013. Hirono also served as a member of the Hawaii House of Representatives from 1981 to 1995 and as Hawaii's tenth lieutenant governor from 1994 to 2002, under Ben Cayetano. She was the unsuccessful Democratic nominee for governor of Hawaii in 2002, defeated by Republican Linda Lingle in the general election.
The Hawaii Republican Party is the affiliate of the Republican Party (GOP) in Hawaii, headquartered in Honolulu. The party was strong during Hawaii's territorial days, but following the Hawaii Democratic Revolution of 1954 the Democratic Party came to dominate Hawaii. The party currently has little power and is the weakest state affiliate of the national Republican Party; it controls none of Hawaii's statewide or federal elected offices and has the least presence in the state legislature of any state Republican party.
Jefferson H. Van Drew is an American politician and dentist serving as the U.S. representative for New Jersey's 2nd congressional district since 2019. Formerly a Democrat, he has been a member of the Republican Party since 2020.
Charles Kong Djou is an American politician who served as U.S. representative for Hawaii's 1st congressional district from 2010 to 2011. Djou won his House seat in a May 2010 special election. He was defeated in the November general election after the Democratic primary provided a single opponent. He ran for but did not win his old House seat again in 2012 and 2014. Djou, who previously served in the Hawaii House of Representatives and on the Honolulu City Council, was the first Thai American of any party and the first Chinese American Republican to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. In June 2016, he entered the race for mayor of Honolulu, which he lost, 48% to 52%, to incumbent Kirk Caldwell. As of 2023, Djou was the last Republican to have represented Hawaii in Congress. He left the Republican Party in 2018 and in 2020 endorsed Joe Biden for president. After Biden won the presidency, he appointed Djou to be Secretary of the American Battle Monuments Commission.
Cynthia Henry Thielen is an American politician who served as a member of the Hawaii House of Representatives representing District 50, the Kailua and Kaneohe Bay areas of Oahu County. A Republican, she served in the state House of Representatives from 1990 until 2020. She served as minority floor leader from 1992 to 1997 and was the assistant minority leader at the time of her retirement.
The 2010 special election for the 1st congressional district of Hawaii was a special election to the United States House of Representatives that took place to fill the vacancy caused by Representative Neil Abercrombie's resignation on February 28, 2010 to focus on his campaign for Governor of Hawaii in the 2010 gubernatorial election. Abercrombie planned not to run for re-election in 2010, and many of the candidates that were running for his open seat transferred to the special election. The election was held on May 22, 2010 and Republican Charles Djou won, defeating five Democrats, four fellow Republicans, and four Independent candidates. The main reason for his win was because there were two Democratic candidates instead of one, which split the votes, allowing Djou to win, as Hawaii is an overwhelmingly Democratic state. Djou became the first Republican elected to Congress from Hawaii since Pat Saiki in 1988; Djou volunteered on Saiki's 1988 campaign, and Saiki served as Djou's campaign chair in 2010. As of 2022, this was the last time in which a Republican was elected to Congress from Hawaii.
Tulsi Gabbard is an American politician, United States Army Reserve officer and political commentator, who was the U.S. representative for Hawaii's 2nd congressional district from 2013 to 2021. Gabbard was the first Samoan-American to become a voting member of Congress and also its first Hindu member. She was a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2020 United States presidential election, before announcing in October 2022 that she had left the Democratic Party to become an independent.
David Sung Yeul Chang is a Korean-American political figure, military combat veteran, entrepreneur and CEO, keynote speaker and editor of The Art of Thinking Smart, based in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is the chairman and CEO of Chang Holding Company Incorporated, a military intelligence officer in the Hawaii Army National Guard, and is the former Chairman of the Hawaii Republican Party and the Republican National Committee. Chang was elected chair in November 2011 for the 2011–2013 term and re-elected for another two-year term in May 2013, but resigned in March 2014, before the end of his term.
Aaron Ling Johanson is an American politician who served as a member of the Hawaii House of Representatives from 2010 to 2022, representing Aiea, Moanalua, Foster Village and Fort Shafter in Honolulu County on the island of Oahu.
Robert Charles McDermott is an American politician and Republican former member of the Hawaii House of Representatives who served from 1996 to 2002 and 2012 to 2022.
Debra Kay Lesko is an American politician who has represented Arizona's 8th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2018. The district is in the West Valley portion of the Phoenix metropolitan area and includes Glendale, Surprise, Sun City, Peoria, and part of western Phoenix. A member of the Republican Party, Lesko previously served in the Arizona State Legislature from 2009 to 2018.
John Stanley Carroll was an American lawyer and politician who served as a state representative and state senator from Hawaii as a Republican. He was also a perennial candidate for multiple statewide offices in Hawaii.
The 2018 United States House of Representatives elections in Hawaii were held on Tuesday, November 6, 2018, to elect the two U.S. representatives from the U.S. state of Hawaii; one from each of the state's two congressional districts. Primaries were held on August 11, 2018. The elections and primaries coincided with the elections and primaries of other federal and state offices.
Melinda Gibbons Prunty is a Republican politician who represented Kentucky's 15th legislative district in the Kentucky House of Representatives from 2017 to 2023. She did not seek reelection in 2022.
The Twenty Ninth Hawaii State Legislature is the current meeting of the legislative branch of the State of Hawaii, composed of the Hawaii House of Representatives and the Hawaii Senate. It met in Honolulu from November 10, 2016, to November 6, 2018, during the final two years of David Ige's first term as governor. The 2016 elections gave Democrats an even larger majority in both legislative bodies, with the losses of one Republican representative and lone Republican senator Sam Slom.
A special election for Arizona's 8th congressional district was held in 2018 subsequent to the resignation of Republican U.S. Representative Trent Franks. Governor Doug Ducey called a special primary election for Tuesday, February 27, 2018, and a special general election for the balance of Franks' eighth term for Tuesday, April 24, 2018.
Virginia's 10th congressional district election was one of the highest-profile United States House of Representatives elections of 2018, and the most competitive in Virginia, Democrat Jennifer Wexton, a lawyer and state lawmaker representing Loudoun County, ousted Republican two-term incumbent congresswoman Barbara Comstock.
Val Okimoto is an American politician and educator serving since November 29, 2022 as the member of the Honolulu City Council representing District VIII. She is a former member and Minority Leader of the Hawaii House of Representatives, serving in that body from 2018 to 2022.
Elizabeth Ann Van Duyne is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for Texas's 24th congressional district. A member of the Republican Party, she was mayor of Irving from 2011 to 2017. She was an official in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Trump administration.
Luella Toledo Costales is an American politician who served as a Democratic member of the Hawaiʻi House of Representatives. She was appointed to represent the 39th district after incumbent Representative Ty Cullen resigned in February 2022.
