The Hawaii Republican Party (HRP; ) is the affiliate of the Republican Party (GOP) in Hawaii, headquartered in Honolulu. The party was strong during Hawaii's territorial days, but following the Hawaii Democratic Revolution of 1954 the Democratic Party came to dominate Hawaii. The party currently has little power and is the weakest state affiliate of the national Republican Party; it controls none of Hawaii's statewide or federal elected offices and has the least presence in the state legislature of any state Republican party.

History

Republic

Following the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom and the creation of the Republic of Hawaii, the American Union Party was created and as the Republic of Hawaii was a de facto one-party state, it faced virtually no opposition. On October 13, 1894, the American Union Party held its first convention, where it established the party's organization, created a platform, and nominated candidates for the 1894 elections. The party's official stance was in favor of annexation by the United States, although as the only legal party, anti-annexation factions were present within the party.

Territorial

After Hawaii was annexed on July 12, 1898, the majority of the American Union Party's members created the Hawaii Republican Party. On March 10, 1899, members of the American Union Party and former leaders of the Republic held a meeting where they decided to postpone the organization of a Republican Party and the creation of an auxiliary party organization.

On May 2, 1900, around one hundred men organized the Republican Party affiliate in Hawaii. The first Republican Convention was held on May 30, 1900. Temporary officers were selected, a platform was created, and delegates were chosen to send to the Republican National Convention in June.

Although a Democratic affiliate existed in the territory, it held little influence, while the pro-Native Hawaiian Home Rule Party emerged as the main opposition. In 1900, the Home Rule Party took control of the territorial legislature and its leader, Robert William Wilcox, was elected as Hawaii's non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives. Prior to the 1902 election, the Reform Party merged into the Hawaii Republican Party. The Home Rule Party split when Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole left its convention on July 10 to form the Hui Kuokoa Party. Shortly afterward he joined the Republicans. In the following elections, the Republicans defeated Wilcox by running Prince Kalanianaʻole, taking control of the legislature with 26 of the 36 seats. Following this defeat, the Home Rule Party existed in a weakened form until 1912, when it fused with the Republicans. The Republican Party led the so-called "Haole-Hawaiian Alliance," with uninterrupted Legislative majorities until Democrats took control of the Legislature in 1954.

The Democratic Party of Hawaii was reorganized in 1902, but did not become influential until the 1920s, when it won multiple Honolulu mayoral elections and elected William Paul Jarrett as delegate to the House of Representatives. However, the Republican party retook the delegation to the House through the 1930s and 1940s, due to support from the Big Five sugar producers. A seminal moment in Hawaiian history, the power of the Big Five was weakened by the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, which lead to unionization on Hawaii's sugar plantations and ultimately the Democratic Revolution of 1954. In elections that year, the Republicans lost control of the territorial legislature for the first time since 1900, as the Democratic affiliate won nine of the fifteen territorial senate seats and twenty two of the thirty territorial house seats. The Democrats retained control of the legislature in the 1956 elections, before the Republicans retook control of the senate in 1958.

Statehood

On May 16, 1959, the affiliate held its first state convention where most of the officer positions went uncontested except for national committeewoman and where the candidates for the upcoming federal and state special elections. In the gubernatorial election incumbent Territorial Governor and Republican William F. Quinn won by 4,139 votes; in the Senate special elections Republican Hiram Fong won by 9,514 votes while Wilfred Tsukiyama was narrowly defeated by 4,577 votes; and Republicans lost the House in a landslide.

In the 1998 gubernatorial election, Maui Mayor Linda Lingle won the Republican nomination and used dissatisfaction with Governor Ben Cayetano's handling of the economy to propel her campaign. She polled above Cayetano. However, allegations that Lingle was a lesbian and her decision as mayor to require state employees to work on Christmas Eve hurt her. In the general election she lost by 5,254 votes. However, her gubernatorial campaign was the most successful since Randolph Crossley in 1966.

In 1999, Lingle and many of her supporters took over leadership positions in the party. Lingle defeated James Kuroiwa Jr., who was aligned with the party's conservative wing and was pro-life, to become chairwoman with 325 to 63 votes.

In the 2002 gubernatorial election, the Democratic party had a contentious primary where Mazie Hirono defeated Ed Case by 2,000 votes. Hirono's campaign was later hurt by corruption allegations that allowed Lingle to narrowly win the election, becoming the first Republican governor since 1962. She won reelection in 2006 and became the only multi-term popularly elected Republican governor in Hawaii history.

Leading into the 2004 presidential election, multiple polls showed George W. Bush performing well in Hawaii and the party made a push to win a House majority or at least enough to prevent veto overrides. However, the Bush campaign later decreased its efforts in Hawaii and Republicans instead lost five seats, despite Bush taking 45% of the votes, the closest the Republicans had come to winning the state in a presidential election since Ronald Reagan's victory in 1984.

In 2010, Representative Neil Abercrombie resigned to focus on his gubernatorial campaign. A special election was held to fill that vacancy. Because special elections did not have primaries, two Democrats candidates ended up splitting Democratic votes, allowing Charles Djou to win with a plurality of 40% to became the first Republican representative from Hawaii since Pat Saiki in 1991. He was defeated in the next general election by Colleen Hanabusa.

Following Donald Trump's election as president, many Republicans defected: Charles Djou became an independent and state House Minority Leader Beth Fukumoto became a Democrat. On December 11, 2019, the party cancelled its presidential preference poll and committed all of its primary delegates to Trump. In January 2021, party chair Shirlene Ostrov and vice-chair Edwin Boyette resigned after Boyette used the party's Twitter account to post a series of tweets praising the QAnon conspiracy theory and describing its adherents as patriots.

A notable recent convert to the party is Tulsi Gabbard, who previously served in the Hawaii House of Representatives from 2002 to 2004 and as U.S. representative for Hawaii's 2nd congressional district from 2013 to 2021 as a member of the Democratic Party. She left the party to become an independent in 2022, and joined the Republicans in 2024. She currently serves as the director of national intelligence (DNI) in the Second Trump Administration.

Positions

Economics

Hawaii Republicans advocate for limited government, lower taxes, decentralized control of public schools, and improving the state's business climate. Republicans generally support business plans and efforts to assist companies in the state in competing against businesses in other states. They typically support interstate and international commerce. For example, former Lieutenant Governor Duke Aiona pushed to keep the National Football League's Pro Bowl in Hawaii, and former Governor Linda Lingle proposed tax reduction incentives to businesses to encourage job creation, such as hotel renovations.

Environment

In the Reform Party, a pre-statehood group that after annexation was largely sympathetic toward the Republican Party, Lorrin Thurston was a strong supporter of the formation of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. In the 21st century, Governor Lingle proposed a Clean Energy Initiative to promote renewable energy, with the goal of making the state 70% energy self-sustainable by 2030. The initiative planned to use solar, wind, ocean, geothermal, and biomass as energy resources with a phased reduction in fossil fuel use.

Religion

Despite the influence of the early missionaries and despite recent national trends, the Republican party in Hawaii steadily lost its Christian overtone over time. After annexation, Christians proselytized immigrants contracted to work in Hawaii's growing sugar industry. This change was, in large part, brought on by Farrington v. Tokushige (1927), a U.S. Supreme Court case brought by approximately 100 Japanese, Korean, and Chinese language schools, a number of which were Buddhist religious schools, against Republican Governor Wallace R. Farrington and the Republican government. It sought to overturn laws limiting the material taught in private schools, including Buddhist philosophy. The court found the laws unconstitutional and in violation of parents' Fifth Amendment right to choose the education of their children. Duke Aiona, a Republican, presented a proclamation to the president of the Junior Young Buddhist Association in 2004 and attended the 2010 lantern festival.

The Party became hesitant to associate itself with religion, with members citing the negative effects of the party's association with the Christian Coalition. The Coalition swelled Republican membership by 50%, but gave rise to infighting; by 1993 the party had lost legislative seats.

State chair and staff

Former state chairs

• Linda Lingle (1999–2002)

• Micah Kane (2002–2003)

• Brennon Morioka (2003–2004)

• Sam Aiona (2005–2007)

• Willes Lee (2007–2009)

• Jonah Kaauwai (2009–2011)

• Beth Fukumoto (2011) (interim)

• David S. Chang (2011–2014)

• Pat Saiki (2014–2015)

• Fritz Rohlfing (2015–2017)

• Shirlene Ostrov (2017–2021)

• Boyd Ready (2021) (interim)

• Lynn Finnegan (2021–2023)

• Diamond Garcia (2023) (interim)

• Tamara McKay (2023–2025)

• Art Hannemann (2025)

County chairs

Elected officials

Congress

• Hiram Fong, United States Senator (1959–1977)

• Charles Djou, United States Representative from Hawaii's 1st district (2010–2011)

• Pat Saiki, United States Representative from Hawaii's 1st district (1987–1991)

• Mary Elizabeth Pruett Farrington, Delegate to the United States House from Hawaii Territory's at-large district (1954–1957)

• Joseph Rider Farrington, Delegate to the United States House from Hawaii Territory's at-large district (1943–1954)

• Samuel Wilder King, Delegate to the United States House from Hawaii Territory's at-large district (1935–1943)

• Victor S. K. Houston, Delegate to the United States House from Hawaii Territory's at-large district (1927–1933)

• Henry Alexander Baldwin, Delegate to the United States House from Hawaii Territory's at-large district (1922–1923)

• Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole, Delegate to the United States House from Hawaii Territory's at-large district (1903–1922)

State officials

• Linda Lingle, Governor (2002–2010)

• Duke Aiona, Lieutenant Governor (2002–2010)

• William F. Quinn, Governor (1957–1962)

• James Kealoha, Lieutenant Governor (1959–1962)

• Samuel Wilder King, Territorial Governor (1953–1957)

• Duke Kahanamoku, Sheriff of Honolulu (1932–1961)

• Lawrence M. Judd, Territorial Governor (1929–1934)

• Wallace Rider Farrington, Territorial Governor (1921–1929)

• Walter F. Frear, Territorial Governor (1907–1913)

• George R. Carter, Territorial Governor (1903–1907)

• Sanford B. Dole, Territorial Governor (1900–1903)

State legislative leaders

• Senate Minority Leader: Brenton Awa

• Senate Minority Floor Leader: Samantha DeCorte

• House Minority Leader: Lauren Matsumoto

• House Minority Floor Leader: Diamond Garcia

Electoral performance

Presidential

Hawaii Republican Party presidential election results

Gubernatorial

Hawaii Republican Party gubernatorial election results

Congressional

United StatesSenate

United StatesHouse of Representatives

State legislature

Senate

House of Representatives

See also

• Aloha ʻĀina Party of Hawai'i

• Green Party of Hawaii

• Democratic Party of Hawaii

References

Bibliography

External links