The race to represent rural Oʻahu and the neighbor islands has shaped up as a high-stakes contest between the state’s highest-ranking Republican and a two-term incumbent Democrat, Hawaiʻi Public Radio reported.
Bridging Washington and Rural Oʻahu
State Senate Minority Leader Brenton Awa is challenging U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda to represent rural Oʻahu and the neighbor islands. Awa, who represents Oʻahu’s North Shore, found himself fielding calls to act as a bridge to national Republicans after President Donald Trump secured a second term. Last year, that role took him to the East Coast to attempt conversations with the lawyer suing Kamehameha Schools in a challenge to its admissions policy preferring Native Hawaiian students.
Awa believes voters should formalize that arrangement on Capitol Hill. We’re getting the calls, so why not make it official?
Awa said during an interview in Haleʻiwa while tending to plants. If it happens, there’s a lot of benefit over the next two years.
To demonstrate that potential influence, Awa posed a hypothetical scenario where Trump needs a House bill passed. Armed with a deciding vote, Awa maintains he would withhold his support until ongoing lawsuits challenging Native Hawaiian preferences come to an end. These are real conversations that happen,
he noted.
Operating on a platform of political reform, Awa also believes in term limits and intends to serve only two years if elected to the U.S. Congress, which currently imposes no such restrictions on its members.
Cost of Living and Federal Policy
On the opposing side of the ballot, Tokuda is campaigning on her legislative record and constituent accessibility, focusing heavily on economic pressures facing local families. Sign-waving to early morning commuters in Kāneʻohe, the incumbent Democrat said voters are feeling the pinch of everyday expenses.
They’re telling me to fight, keep fighting, because they understand where the pain is coming from,” the Democrat told HPR. “They understand the cause of it — what’s causing gas to go high with the war in Iran, what’s causing food prices and everyday prices to go up with the kind of tariff and trade wars that they’re seeing.
If reelected, Tokuda pledged to push for a suspension of the federal gas tax and to secure tariff rebates for consumers.
Candidates Propose Lowering Blood Quantum Limits
Beyond economic concerns, the candidates differ on how and when to tackle complex statutory hurdles surrounding Hawaiian Homelands successor leases. Currently, lessees may only bequeath a property to a spouse, child, grandchild, or sibling if the recipient is at least one-fourth Native Hawaiian.
Awa wants to lower that threshold to 1/32nd and push for the change immediately under the current Trump administration. Former Rep. Kai Kahele first introduced similar legislation before leaving office in 2022. I recognize why the other party doesn’t want to push it because of fear of retaliation,
Awa said. But I think we can bridge that gap. We’ve had talks up there with the White House.
While Tokuda supports reforming the blood quantum rules and has introduced her own legislation to address it, she argues that pursuing the change is safest when Democrats hold at least one chamber of Congress. That caution stems from arguments made by the Trump administration classifying Native Hawaiians as a racial group rather than an Indigenous people.
It’s a very dangerous time if we don’t have a checks and balance in place to make sure that a bill is not used to actually hurt Hawaiians, versus help make sure that the successorship is in place so that people can pass down their leases to the next generation,
Tokuda said.
Observers Watch Voter Support for Awa
Beth Fukumoto, a former Hawaiʻi lawmaker and congressional candidate, views Awa as one of the state Republican Party’s more dynamic contenders, while noting Tokuda’s consistent community presence. Fukumoto is closely watching whether Awa can pull in a higher share of the vote than Trump did during the 2024 general election, when the president won roughly 37% of the state’s vote.
Jill Tokuda has done a good job of making sure people know that she understands their needs. And so I don’t really expect that sort of pent-up frustration against the system to come out against Jill Tokuda,
Fukumoto said. But that is, I’m sure, what Brenton’s hoping will happen.
