Hawaii Elections 2020: Primary Election Ballot
Hundreds of candidates have filed to run in the 2020 primary. This resource guide will help you figure out who to vote for.
Hawaii is the only state that holds its statewide primary election on a Saturday. This year, the primary is Aug. 8.
This year Hawaii will be conducting both the primary and general elections . Ballots are expected to go out in the mail 18 days before the election, so you should be receiving your primary ballot around July 20.
There will also be eight and 36 places of deposit around the state to provide accessible in-person voting, same-day voter registration and collection of voted ballots. The centers will be open 10 days before the primary.
If ballots aren’t in the mail by Aug. 3, elections officials ask that voters take them to one of the deposit locations.
The race for president of the United States will top the Nov. 3 general election ballot.
Separate from the state and counties, the Democratic Party of Hawaii held an all-mail-in ballot presidential primary earlier this year. Former Vice President Joe Biden picked up the most votes and delegates.
The Republican Party of Hawaii did not hold a nominating contest, as President Donald Trump is again the nominee.
Every state House seat — all 51 — is up for election along with 13 of the 25 state Senate seats.
So is the Honolulu mayor, five of nine Honolulu City Council seats, the Hawaii County mayor, and county council seats in Maui, Kauai and Hawaii County. Prosecuting attorneys in Honolulu, on the Big Island and on Kauai are up for election.
Four of the nine seats on the board of trustees for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs will also be on the ballot — one at-large seat, one representing Hawaii island, one for Kauai and one for Molokai.
Candidates who win their primaries and have no general election opponent are deemed to have won the office. In Hawaii, many statewide and legislative races are effectively decided in the primary because of the overwhelming dominance of the Democratic Party. So whichever Democrat wins the primary often goes on to prevail in the general election.
New to Hawaii’s ballot this year is the . According to its website, the party demands government accountability and transparency especially as it relates to the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. The party believes aloha is the “greatest hope and strength” for Hawaii, the nation and world. It says it will work from within the U.S. political system to benefit keiki and kupuna.
The American Shopping Party is the creation of John Giuffre, an author of books about economics. The party, which qualified for the Hawaii ballot in 2016, on a desire to end consumerism and is influenced by ideas from eastern religions.
Hawaii allows candidates to run as independents if they choose not to join a political party. But independent candidates rarely progress past the primary election because them to get at least 10% of the total votes cast in the primary or as many votes as the winning partisan candidate who got the least number of votes.
County-level races as well as the contest for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs are nonpartisan. Candidates are not designated as Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians or any other affiliation. Some county races with only two candidates won’t appear on the primary ballot but will be on the Nov. 8 ballot.
Below is a list of the candidates who have filed their paperwork to run for office in the primary. The filing deadline for both the Aug. 8 primary and the Nov. 3 general election was June 2.
Some candidates have been active for months, including raising money from contributors. You can study campaign finance reports for each candidate at the . The next campaign reports for candidates .
Three state laws enacted in 2019 apply to 2020 candidates:
- Candidate committees are required to notify the Campaign Spending Commission by June 30 of an election year in their organizational report that they do not intend to receive contributions, or spend more than $1,000 in an election period.
- Candidates are allowed to make charitable donations and scholarship awards prior to the day after the general election if a candidate is declared to be “duly and legally elected” to the office for which the person is a candidate, or is unsuccessful in the primary or special primary election.
- And a candidate’s preliminary report is due Oct. 1 of an election year that they are on the ballot and another report on April 30 for candidates who file nomination papers by April 25 of an election year.
Critics are concerned that voters don’t have much time to check on where candidates are getting their money, especially with the popularity of early voting in which people can begin turning in their ballots about a month before the election.
Civil Beat has been analyzing the campaign cash flowing to candidates, looking at candidates as well as contributors, including political action committees. You can find those stories in our ongoing report, Cashing In.
You can read all of Civil Beat’s coverage of the 2020 elections here.
And get more information about this year’s elections, candidates and campaigns in our Hawaii Elections Guide 2020.
Check back frequently. We’ll also be including links to information on candidates and where they stand on important issues. We’ve sent out candidate questionnaires in statewide and legislative races as well as the Honolulu mayor and City Council races, and other neighbor island county races. We’ll link to those from this page as they come in.
The Ballot (Unofficial)
D = Democrat, R = Republican, I = Independent, L = Libertarian, G = Green Party, C = Constitution, A = Aloha Aina, AS = American Shopping, N = Nonpartisan, NS = Nonpartisan Special
* = incumbent
Ed Case (D) *
Ron Curtis (R)
James Dickens (R)
Arturo Reyes (R)
Nancy Olson (R)
Taylor Smith (R)
Calvin Griffin (N)
Brian Evans (D)
Noelle Famera (D)
Kai Kahele (D)
Brenda Lee (D)
Joe Akana (R)
Steven Bond (R)
Karla Gottschalk (R)
David Hamman (R)
Nicholas Love (R)
Robert Nagamine (R)
Raymond Quel (R)
Michelle Tippens (L)
John Giuffre (AS)
Ron Burrus (N)
State Senate
District 2
Smiley Burrows (D)
Joy San Buenaventura (D)
Ron Ka-Ipo (A)
District 5
Gil Keith-Agaran (D) *
Rynette Keen (A)
District 8
Ron Kouchi (D) *
District 9
Stanley Chang (D) *
Sam Slom (R)
District 10
Jesus Arriola (D)
Vicki Higgins (D)
Les Ihara (D) *
Paul Shiraishi (N)
District 11
Brian Taniguchi (D) *
District 13
Kevin McDonald (D)
Karl Rhoads (D) *
District 14
Donna Mercado Kim (D) *
District 15
Glenn Wakai (D) *
District 19
John Clark (D)
Rida Arakawa Cabanilla (D)
Kurt Fevella (R) *
District 20
Mike Gabbard (D) *
Feena Bonoan (L)
District 22
Donovan Dela Cruz (D) *
T.J. Cuaresma (D)
John Miller (R)
Banner Fanene (N)
District 25
Chris Lee (D)
Kristina Marshall-Kim (R)
State House
District 1
Mark Nakashima (D) *
Lorraine Shin (R)
District 2
Chris Todd (D) *
Devin McMackin (A)
District 3
Shannon Matson (D)
Richard Onishi (D) *
Frederick Fogel (D)
Susann Hughes (R)
District 4
Gregor Ilagan (D)
Hope Cermelj (R)
Bryan Ley (NP)
Desmon Antone Haumea (A)
Eileen O’Hara (D)
District 5
Colehour Bondera (D)
Jeanne Kapela (D)
Citlalli Johanna Decker (A)
Mike Last (L)
District 6
Nicole Lowen (D) *
District 7
David Tarnas (D) *
District 8
Kaapuni Aiwohi (D)
Troy Hashimoto (D) *
Robert Hill (D)
District 9
Justin Woodson (D) *
District 10
Angus McKelvey (D) *
Leonard Nakoa (D)
Kanamu Balinbin (R)
Travis Gyldstrand (A)
District 11
Don Couch (D)
Tina Wildberger (D) *
Howard Greenberg (A)
District 12
Simon Russell (D)
Kyle Yamashita (D) *
District 13
Lynn DeCoite (D) *
Walter Ritte (D)
Robin Vanderpool (R)
Theresa Kapaku (A)
District 14
Nadine Nakamura (D) *
Steve Monas (R)
District 15
James Tokioka (D) *
Steve Yoder (R)
District 16
Dee Morikawa (D) *
Ana Des (R)
District 17
Keith Kogachi (D)
Gene Ward (R) *
District 18
Tommy Driskill (D)
Mark Jun Hashem (D) *
Lori Ford (R)
District 19
Bert Kobayashi (D) *
Wayne Chen (AS)
Mike Parrish (N)
District 20
Becky Gardner (D)
Jay Ishibashi (D)
Jackson Sayama (D)
Derek Turbin (D)
Julia Allen (R)
District 21
Scott Nishimoto (D) *
District 22
Tom Brower (D) *
Adrian Tam (D)
Nicholas Ochs (R)
District 23
Dale Kobayashi (D) *
District 24
Della Au Belatti (D) *
Andy Sexton (A)
District 25
Sylvia Luke (D) *
District 26
Kim Coco Iwamoto (D)
Scott Saiki (D) *
District 27
Takashi Ohno (D) *
District 28
John Mizuno (D) *
District 29
Daniel Holt (D) *
James Logue (D)
District 30
Romy Cachola (D) *
Sonny Ganaden (D)
P.M. Azinga (R)
Tess Quilingking (R)
District 31
Aaron Ling Johanson (D) *
District 32
Linda Ichiyama (D) *
District 33
Tracy Arakaki (D)
Sam Kong (D) *
Jenny Boyette (R)
District 34
Gregg Takayama (D) *
Keone Simon (R)
District 35
Roy Takumi (D) *
Carl Hood (R)
Keline-Kameyo Kahau (A)
District 36
Trish La Chica (D)
Marilyn Lee (D)
Val Okimoto (R) *
District 37
Ryan Yamane (D) *
Emil Svrcina (R)
District 38
Henry Aquino (D) *
District 39
Ty Cullen (D) *
Austin Maglinti (R)
District 40
Rose Martinez (D)
Bob McDermott (R) *
District 41
Matt LoPresti (D)
Amanda Rathbun (D)
David Alcos (R)
Ryan Uehara (N)
District 42
Sharon Har (D) *
Vickie Kam (D)
District 43
Stacelynn Eli (D) *
Diamond Garcia (R)
Michael Kahikina (D)
Shaena Hoohuli (A)
District 44
Cedric Gates (D) *
Jo Jordan (D)
Maysana Aldeguer (R)
Joseph Simpliciano (A)
District 45
Michael Chapman (D)
Lauren Cheape Matsumoto (R) *
District 46
Aaron Agsalda (D)
Amy Perruso (D) *
District 47
Sean Quinlan (D) *
Boyd Ready (R)
District 48
Lisa Kitagawa (D) *
District 49
Scot Matayoshi (D) *
Michael Danner (R)
District 50
Patrick Branco (D)
Micah Pregitzer (D)
Kanani Souza (R)
District 51
Alan Akao (D)
Coby Chock (D)
Scott Grimmer (D)
Lisa Marten (D)
Doni Chong (R)
Kukana Kama-Toth (R)
Erik Ho (A)
Honolulu Mayor
Karl Dicks
Tim Garry
Micah Mussell
Tae Kim
Anash Yaqoob
District 1
Naomi Hanohano
District 3
District 5
District 7
Ryan Mandado
District 9
Hawaii County Mayor
Michael Glendon
Robert Greenwell
Wendell Kaeheaea
Lahi Verschuur
Hawaii County Prosecuting Attorney
Hawaii County Council
District 1
Elroy Juan
Jaclyn Moore
Dominic Yagong
District 2
William Halversen
District 3
Henry Kaaihue
Sue Lee Loy *
Paul Neves
District 4
Ashley Kierkiewicz *
District 5
District 6
Maile David *
District 7
Jane Clement
District 8
District 9
Maui County Council
East Maui
West Maui
Rick Nava
Wailuku-Waihee-Waikapu
Alice Lee *
Kahului
Tasha Kama *
South Maui
Tom Cook
Kelly King *
Makawao-Haiku-Paia
Upcountry
Yuki Lei Sugimura *
Lanai
Alberta De Jetley
Matthew Mano
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Kauai County Prosecuting Attorney
Kauai County Council
Donovan Cabebe
Bernard Carvalho Jr.
Billy DeCosta
Richard Fukushima
Shirley Simbre-Medeiros
Naomi Taniguchi
Clint Yago
At-Large
Kaipo Hanakahi
Lenson Sonoda
Hawaii
Laura Desoto-McCollough
Lanakila Mangauil
Molokai
Kauai
Brittny Perez
