HONOLULU– U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono and the state’s current congressional representatives are favored to win Saturday’s Democratic primary in Hawaii.
Hawaii is a vote-by-mail state. Ballots were sent to registered voters who must return them by mail or to drop boxes located on the islands. Voters can also vote in person at several voter service centers in each county.
Ballots must be received at county election offices by 7 p.m. on Election Day to be counted.
Here’s a look at Hawaii’s top races:
Hirono is seeking her third term in the U.S. Senate after being first elected to the position in 2012 to succeed Daniel Akaka.
In the Democratic primary, she faces Ron Curtis, whom she defeated 69% to 28% in the general election six years ago when he was the Republican nominee for the same seat. Also running is Clyde McClain Lewman, who placed seventh in the 2022 Democratic gubernatorial primary with 249 votes.
Hirono became a state legislator in 1980, lieutenant governor of Hawaii in 1994 and a member of the U.S. House in 2007.
She suffered surgery from kidney cancer in 2017, a year before she was last elected to a second six-year term in the Senate.
Former state Rep. Bob McDermott and five lesser-known candidates are seeking the Republican nomination for Senate. McDermott last ran for Senate two years ago, when he lost to U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, a Democrat, in the general election by a 44-point margin.
U.S. Rep. Ed Case is seeking the Democratic nomination to represent Hawaii’s 1st Congressional District. He faces Cecil Hale.
Case was first elected to represent the city of Honolulu in 2018, after previously representing Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District from 2002 to 2007.
Patrick Largey is running unopposed in the Republican primary.
In the 2nd Congressional District race, U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda is unopposed in the Democratic primary and Steve Bond is unopposed in the Republican primary. The district encompasses the Honolulu suburbs and surrounding islands.
House Speaker Scott Saiki faces a tough race against Kim Coco Iwamoto, who is running once again after losing to Saiki by just 161 votes two years ago and 167 votes in 2020.
His state district covers downtown Honolulu and Kakaako, where a construction boom has turned warehouses into multistory condominiums.
Saiki, a lawyer, has been president of the Chamber since 2017 and a state deputy for three decades. His campaign website touts legislation passed this year that he says would provide a 70% tax cut to working-class families.
Iwamoto is an attorney who represented Oahu on the State Board of Education from 2006 to 2011. Her website says she is fighting to expose government corruption and waste and to provide enough shelter and social workers to deal with homelessness.
Iwamoto was the highest-ranking openly transgender person elected in the country when she won her seat on the education board 18 years ago.
