Hawaii Congressional District Elections
Hawaii has two congressional districts, the 1st and the 2nd.
1st Congressional District Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, a former Hawaii state Senate president, won her congressional seat in November 2010. Hanabusa, a Democrat, defeated incumbent Charles Djou, a Republican, 50-44 percent. Hanabusa and Djou faced off again in 2012, and she was easily re-elected, 54 percent to 44 percent. Hanabusa is vacating the seat to run for U.S. Senate in 2014. She faces incumbent U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz in the Aug. 9 primary.
2nd Congressional District Rep. Tulsi Gabbard won in a landslide in the Nov. 6, 2012 general election. After upsetting veteran politician and former Honolulu mayor Mufi Hannemann in the primary, Gabbard was tagged by national Democrats as a rising star.
The 2nd district was formerly represented by Mazie Hirono, who held the post since Jan. 3, 2007. Hirono vacated the seat to run for retiring Sen. Daniel Akaka‘s seat.
Overview
The 1st Congressional District is essentially urban Honolulu, but it stretches from Hawaii Kai in East Honolulu to Waipahu in west Oahu and Mililani in central Oahu. The district includes Pearl City, Waimalu, Aiea, and the downtown area where Hawaii’s government offices and many of its top businesses are concentrated. There are more than 600,000 people who live in the 1st District, of which about 317,000 are registered voters.
The 2nd Congressional District includes Kauai, Maui, the island of Hawaii, Lanai, Molokai, Kahoolawe, the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and the north and west regions of Oahu. The district contains approximately half of all state residents, 604,819 people.
In the 2011 redistricting process based on the 2010 U.S. Census the boundary of the 1st district moved west to include more of Kapolei and Ko Olina, which means that Hanabusa’s personal residence is now in her district under the new boundaries.
History
From statehood in 1959 until 1963, Hawaii sent a lone representative to Congress. The 1960 U.S. Census determined that the population of Hawaii was large enough to be entitled to a second representative, but the Census results couldn鈥檛 apply until the 1962 election. In January of 1963, Hawaii swore in and sent two at-large representatives who were elected statewide.
In 1971, the state created its two districts, the 1st congressional district and the 2nd congressional district.
The 1st Congressional District has mostly been occupied by Democrats: Spark Matsunaga (1971-1977), Cec Heftel (1977-1986), and Abercrombie (1986-1987, 1991-2010). Pat Saiki (1987-1991) was the only Republican to serve the district until Djou was elected in 2010.
For the District 1 seat, a special election was held on May 22, 2010 to replace Abercrombie, who resigned Feb. 28 to seek the 2010 Democratic nomination for governor. Djou won the election with 39.4 percent of the vote vs. 30.8 percent for Hanabusa and 27.6 percent for former Congressman Ed Case. The election was conducted as a “vote-by-mail” election. Turnout was 54 percent, with 174,417 out of 317,337 registered voters casting ballots, exceeded expectations.
Despite the one-party dominance of Democrats, recent campaign results suggest there is significant support for Republicans in the district.
District 2 has always elected Democratic representatives: Daniel Akaka (1977-1990), Patsy Mink (1990-2002), Ed Case (2002-2007) and Mazie Hirono (2007-2012).
