HONOLULU – U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono and the state’s current congressional representatives won their races in Saturday’s Democratic primary elections.
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 also had the option to vote in person at several voter service centers in each county.
Ballots had to be received at county election offices by 7pm on Election Day to be counted.
Here’s a look at Hawaii’s top races:
US Senate
Hirono is seeking a third term after first being elected to the position in 2012 to replace Daniel Akaka, who was the first Native Hawaiian to serve in the U.S. Senate after statehood.
She won a three-way race against Ron Curtis and Clyde McClain Lewman. Curtis lost to Hirono in the general election six years ago when he was the Republican nominee for the same seat. Lewman 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 underwent kidney cancer surgery in 2017, a year before she was last elected to a second six-year term in the Senate.
Former state representative Bob McDermott defeated five lesser-known candidates for the Republican Senate nomination. 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.
US House
U.S. Representative Ed Case won the Democratic Party primary to represent Hawaii’s 1st congressional district in Congress by defeating 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 ran unopposed in the Republican primary.
In the 2nd Congressional District race, U.S. Representative Jill Tokuda was unopposed in the Democratic primary and Steve Bond was unopposed in the Republican primary. The district encompasses the Honolulu suburbs and surrounding islands.
State House
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.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
