Former Congressman Wins Seat On OHA Board Of Trustees
UPDATED: Three seats on the Office of Hawaiian Affairs remain to be decided in November — Molokai, Kauai and the at-large seat.
Editor’s note: These results have been updated as of 7:15 a.m. Sunday. Percentages have been adjusted to eliminate blank and over votes.
Kai Kahele will be making a return to politics as an Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee for the Big Island.
Kahele had 56.7% of the vote as of Sunday morning. Zuri Aki had 24.2% followed by Hope Cermelj (11.1%) and Hulali Waltjen-Kuilipule (7.9%). Kahele received more than 50% of the vote and will not have to run in the general election in November.
Hawaii island Trustee Mililani Trask decided not seek reelection this year. She endorsed Kahele, a former congressman who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2022.
Voters are backing incumbents in other OHA races.
Incumbent Trustee Kelii Akina led a crowded field for one of OHA’s at-large seats with 26.7% of the vote. He was trailed by Lei Ahu Isa, who had 20.2%. They will face each other in the Nov. 5 general election.
Akina was first elected to OHA in 2016 after running on a reform platform. Ahu Isa is a former trustee who spent years in various public offices including the Legislature and state Board of Education.
Former trustee Peter Apo received 18.3% of the vote followed by Brendon Lee (12.2%), Patty Kahanamoku-Teruya (11.5%), Leona Kalima (7.4%), and Larry Kawaauhau (3.7%).
For the Molokai seat, Trustee Luana Alapa lead the field of candidates with 48.8% of the vote, short of the number necessary to win the seat outright. She will face Kunani Nihipali, who had 29.8% of the vote, in November. Lu Ann Lankford-Faborito received 10.9% of the vote and Gayla Haliniak with 10.3%.
Lankford-Faborito challenged Alapa’s residency earlier this election season, but the state elections office upheld Alapa’s candidacy.
Trustee Dan Ahuna and challenger Laura Lindsey are the only two candidates in the race for the Kauai trustee seat. They will face off in the November general election.
OHA, created during the 1978 Constitutional Convention, often advocates on behalf of Native Hawaiian interests before other state agencies and the Legislature.
The trustees play a role in managing trust assets controlled by OHA, including real estate and a trust fund with a market value exceeding $500 million. Those assets are to be used to benefit Native Hawaiians.
Recently, the office has increased the amount of grant funds it awards annually to nonprofits to about $17 million. OHA recently received a larger allocation of ceded land revenues from the state, and is currently working with other agencies and stakeholders to determine a permanent annual allocation after the office had said it was shortchanged on those funds for years.
OHA is also wading into other high-profile issues, including the stewardship of Mauna Ala, the final resting place of many of Hawaii’s monarchs. The office has entered discussions with the Alii Trusts and various stakeholders over possibly taking over management of the Oahu monument from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.
Voters statewide are eligible to vote in the OHA races since a court ruling more than 20 years ago struck down laws that limited voting in those races to only Native Hawaiians.
