WASHINGTON (AP) — Voting ends Saturday in Hawaii state primarieswhere candidates for Congress and the Legislature will compete for their parties’ nominations.
Hawaii’s Senate and House primaries are expected to set the stage for Democrats’ much-needed sure victories in November, as the party faces tough contests across the country in its bid to control both chambers heading into the next presidential administration.
At the top of the ballot is the Senate race, where Democrats Mazie Hirono seeks a third term. She is expected to easily win the primary against retired computer engineer Ron Curtis and salesman Clyde Lewman. Curtis was the Republican candidate against Hirono in 2018 and against the Democratic congressman. Ed case in 2020, receiving 29% and 28% of the vote in the general election, respectively. Lewman ran for governor in 2022, placing last in the Democratic primary with 0.1% of the vote. Hirono had $2.3 million in his campaign treasury as of mid-July, while neither opponent has filed a campaign finance report with the Federal Election Commission as required.
The Republican candidate will be the winner of a six-candidate primary. Army veteran and community worker Adriel Lam and former state representative. Bob McDermott are the only candidates who have reported raising any money for the race, although both are significantly behind Hirono. Lam had just $4,400 in the bank in mid-July, while McDermott reported cash reserves of less than $10. McDermott ran for Senate in 2022, receiving 26% of the vote against incumbent Democrat Brian Schatz.
Case also drew a nominal challenge in the Democratic primary in the 1st Congressional District. His opponent is Cecil Hale, who also failed to report his campaign finance activity to the FEC. Case was first elected to replace longtime Democratic Rep. Patsy Mink, who died in office in 2002. He is now seeking a sixth full term. Republican Patrick Largey is unopposed for the Republican nomination.
In the 2nd Congressional District, first-term Democratic Rep. Jill Tokuda and Republican Steve Bond are unopposed for their party’s nominations.
In the Legislature, House Speaker Scott Saiki faces a Democratic primary challenge from former State Board of Education member Kim Coco Iwamoto in the 25th District. Iwamoto came within 161 votes of defeating Saiki in the 2022 primary.
About half of Hawaii’s 25 state Senate seats and all 51 state House seats are up for election this year. Democrats hold overwhelming majorities in both chambers.
Check out what to expect this Saturday:
Primary day
Hawaii’s state primary will be held on Saturday. All surveys close at 7pm local time, which is 1am EDT on Sunday.
What’s on the vote
The Associated Press will provide voting results and declare winners in contested primaries for Senate, House, state Senate and state House.
Who can vote
Any registered voter in Hawaii can participate in any party’s primary.
Decision notes
Hawaii has four main counties, with Honolulu County having by far the largest population. Hawaii County is a distant second, followed by Maui and Kauai counties.
In the 2022 Republican primary for Senate, McDermott won statewide by posting a 20-point lead in Honolulu County while narrowly losing the other three counties. Curtis won Honolulu County with 41% of the vote in his 2020 Republican primary for Congress, but that won’t easily translate into votes in the Democratic primary against Hirono, who has held elected office in the state almost continuously since 1981.
The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it is determined that there is no scenario that would allow trailing candidates to close the gap. If a race is not called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or victory declarations. In doing so, the AP will make it clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.
Recounts in Hawaii are automatic if the vote margin is 100 votes or less or 0.25% of the total votes cast for a race, whichever is less. The AP may declare a winner in a race eligible for recount if it can determine that the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the result.
What is participation and early voting like?
As of November 2022, there are 861,358 registered voters in Hawaii.
In that year’s primaries, turnout was 31% of registered voters in the Democratic primary and 8% in the Republican primary. Voting in Hawaii is predominantly conducted by mail, although voters have the option of voting in person at a vote center.
As of Tuesday morning, more than 159,000 mail-in ballots had been cast out of approximately 816,000 mail-in ballots.
How long does vote counting normally take?
In the 2022 state primary, the AP first reported results at 1:55 a.m. EDT, nearly an hour after polls closed. Election night counting ended at 5:06 a.m. EDT with about 82% of the total votes counted.
Are we there yet?
As of Tuesday, there will be 87 days until the November general election.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the 2024 elections at https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.
