For the first time this year, the three candidates vying for the state Senate's District 18 are on the ballot for voters — guaranteeing a new face in a seat long held by Sen. Michelle Kidani.
The candidates on the ballot are Sen. Danielle Bass, Kelly Kitashima and Max Hanna.
For 18 years, Kidani represented the district, which covers Waipiʻo, Royal Kunia and parts of Mililani and Waipahu. She retired in June, following growing concerns about her cognition.
Because her retirement came after the filing deadline for candidates interested in running this year had passed, no primary election was held for the vacant seat.
Instead, the county's political parties chose their general election candidates.
Bass, a Democrat, and Kitashima, a Republican, were selected by their official parties. Hanna was chosen "by lot" — his name picked out of a lauhale basket — because he filed as a nonpartisan candidate.
All three candidates would be considered newcomers to the state Capitol if elected.
Danielle Bass
Bass, who has the most leadership experience in government, also has the most notable support. She's also the Democrat candidate in a blue-leaning district and is likely the favorite to win the race.
She's currently the sitting senator for District 18. After Kidani's retirement, Gov. Josh Green appointed Bass to the seat until the voters decide this year who will serve for the remaining two years of Kidani's term.
Kidani herself is supporting Bass in the race.
Bass has also served as the state's sustainability coordinator and served on the Mililani-Waipiʻo-Melemanu Neighborhood Board for nearly 20 years.
One of the top priorities for all the candidates is Hawaiʻi's cost of living and affordability.
Bass said on her campaign website that she wants to address affordability through workforce development and high-paying jobs in sectors like agriculture, education, healthcare and "other industries important to Hawaiʻi's future."
Her time as the state's sustainability coordinator, which began in 2017, has influenced her policy focus as well.
She wants to strengthen the state's electrical grid, a need amplified during a stormy and hurricane-heavy year.
"We're having tremendous disaster and climate issues where we need climate adaptation at our infrastructure levels, in our community levels, at our homes and for our families to keep us all safe and secure so that people stop moving and leaving the state," Bass said to HPR.
Bass said she's frequently in touch with Hawaiian Electric to improve the grid and the community's energy resilience.
She's also interested in reviving the renewable energy tax credit the state Legislature cut this year.
Bass also wants to improve the water infrastructure going to agricultural land in Kunia that is within District 18.
Kelly Kitashima
Kitashima, a Native Hawaiian and the race's Republican candidate, has had a long career in the tourism industry.
According to her campaign website, for 24 years, she's been in the industry "managing teams, multimillion-dollar budgets, and businesses."
Her short-term policies would support tourism, which she said would in turn support the economy and residents' pocketbooks.
"Coming from the private sector, I am really well-versed in our No. 1 industry, which is tourism. It represents 80% of our economy," Kitashima said to HPR. "Without a stable economy, we don't have stable jobs. Without stable jobs, we don't have stable wages and the trickle down of small business."
Specifically, she wants more funding for the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority, which has seen its power and funding stripped away over the last few years.
She anticipates local agriculture to "take off" in the next decade because of all the interest in local food production and is supportive of a more diverse economy. In the meantime, she said that tourism should be supported while other industries are growing.
She's also interested in auditing government agencies to bring transparency and accountability into the government.
Recent audits and investigations, she said, have revealed some of the government inefficiencies and corruption taking place.
Kitashima previously served as the office manager for Sen. Samantha DeCorte, one of three Republicans in the state Senate. She wants to work with up-and-coming Republicans as the party tries to grow its influence at the state Capitol.
" I truly think (there's been a) conservative movement, starting on the west side, moving into Central Oʻahu," she said. "This particular race is going to change the trajectory of Hawaiʻi politics."
Kitashima argues that her district is also increasingly Christian, and that she represents a different — and like-minded — option for voters after years of Democrat rule.
Max Hanna
The nonpartisan option in the race stands out as the youngest and least experienced candidate, but 21-year-old Hanna was motivated to run because of the state's high cost of living.
His focus would be on major tax reform. He said he wants a flat income tax similar to the 5% tax in Massachusetts, which includes a 4% surtax on income over $1 million.
He also wants to eliminate property taxes altogether, though he realizes how unlikely that is as property taxes make up much of the counties' revenue.
"It feels weird to me that for 30 years of your life, you could pay into owning a house, and then once it's fully paid off you still have to pay … every year to the government in order to keep your house," Hanna said to HPR.
For those ideas and others, he said no one else is thinking or talking about because they represent the two major political parties.
"People are just tired of the same song and dance. They want actual change because things are changing so fast, and they're not really acting upon it," he said.
Hanna, a lot technician at a local car dealership, said he understands the struggle of working "regular jobs" in the state.
He said he agrees and disagrees with both liberal and conservative ideologies, and entertains at least some ideas from libertarian sources, such as the Common Sense Soapbox web series.
The series, he said, informed his support for a public-option healthcare system that makes both government-run and private insurance plans available to Americans.
Stances on national issues
The candidates' opinions on national issues generally fall along party lines.
On federal immigration enforcement, Bass supports the state's recent moves to restrict how much local law enforcement agencies can cooperate with federal immigration activities.
"I think that this national focus on ICE and anti-immigration … narratives that we're hearing nationally, I think that it's really inhumane," Bass said. "I strongly support all protections for our immigrants in Hawaii."
Hanna and Kitashima were less critical of the federal actions. Both said they support legal immigration but are concerned that illegal immigration could introduce more crime.
Kitashima said there needs to be better collaboration between local enforcement and federal immigration agents so that legal immigrants aren't targeted, as has been the case under the increased enforcement during the Trump administration.
"I'm an advocate so long as we're doing it the legal and the proper way. My sister-in-law is actually from Tahiti and married my brother-in-law, and they spent $10,000 coming and doing the legal process," she said, adding, " I'm also really, as a mother, very concerned for the public safety."
Hanna wants the state to relax its restrictive gun laws. He said a trip to Texas demonstrated to him that an armed public improves safety.
"We went to a restaurant where people were open carrying … but everyone's fine with it," he said. "There was never any muggings or anything because there's usually someone around the corner with a pistol in their hip."
Hanna supports red flag laws meant to take guns from citizens who might be at risk of harming others.
Bass supports ranked-choice voting, which Oʻahu voters will consider this year.
She said, " We need to provide ranked choice voting so that people can feel more participatory in the process. They can feel more empowered that they have a voice."
Kitashima said the modern conservative is part of what she calls the "common sense" party that believes in "less regulations, less taxes, tax reform. I'm also a Christian, and so I do believe in biblical faith, and the foundation of family is critically important in Hawaiʻi."
She also opposed transgender athletes playing in school sports.
"I am the mother of a female athlete. I humbly believe that that is completely inappropriate. That is a public safety issue, and the fact that we're even having discussions about that is very heartbreaking."
