Hawaii is a popular vacation destination, known for its stunning beaches and lush tropical scenery. But the Hawaiian Islands have a vibrant and diverse political landscape as well. The current governor of Hawaii is David Ige, a Democrat who was elected in 2014 and reelected in 2018. At the Congressional level, Hawaii has two Senators, Brian Schatz and Mazie Hirono, both Democrats who serve on the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee. In terms of representation at the state level, Hawaii currently has 51 members in the House of Representatives, all of whom are Democrats. With so many representatives from one party in power, it can be difficult to bring opposing views into play when making important political decisions affecting Hawaii's residents. However, each year there are local elections where voters can help influence which candidates win seats in the legislature and make their voices heard on issues that matter most to them.
The political climate in Hawaii is strongly liberal.
In Hawaii 63.7% of the people voted for the Democratic Party in the last presidential election, 34.3% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.0% voted for an Independent Party.
In the last Presidential election, Hawaii remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 63.7% to 34.3%.
Hawaii voted Democratic in the previous six Presidential elections.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Hawaii is strongly liberal.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index is based on recent voting in national elections, federal campaign contributions by local residents, and consumer personality profiles.
VoteWord™
Displaying 20 years of Presidential voting, visualized in one word.
Hawaii, Hawaii: D d D D D D
How It Works:
Here at BestPlaces, we were looking at the voting patterns since the 2000 election and realized that we could express the results of each election as one letter. R if the Republican Party candidate won, D for the Democrat and I for the Independent. The six elections (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020) would be expressed as six-letter word (R R D R R R).
Then we went a little further and added the dimension of magnitude. If the difference of victory was greater than 10 percent, the letter is upper case, and lower case if the difference was less than 10 percent. This allows us to see interesting voting patterns at just a glance.
Here's the VoteWord for Iowa d r d d r r. In the last six elections the state has been closely contested, voting narrowly for the Republican Party candidate in 2016 and 2020 after voting for the Democratic Party in 2008 and 2012. Virginia (r r d d d D) has voted for the Democratic Party in the last four elections.
Individual Campaign Contributions in Hawaii
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 102,006 contributions totaling $13,582,407 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $133 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 13,783 contributions totaling $2,936,999 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $213 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)