An August update – Primary victory, meeting future colleagues, and next steps for community projects

It’s been a busy and eventful month!

We were successful in our Primary election contest. After 1,149 individual conversations with voters, we won the election with 1,601 tallied votes. I’m most proud, however, of the incredibly low number of blank votes — just 99. We had the lowest number of blank votes in any contested primary. What does this mean? For me, it means that people came to our section of the ballot and clearly knew who they wanted to vote for. It’s a testament to the strength of our message and the efficacy of our “get out the vote” strategy.

Getting out the vote!

Here was my computer on the morning of August 10 – those are individual text threads with voters, making sure that they get their ballots in.

We’re going to take a short break, and resume campaign activities in a few weeks. I’m resuming door-knocking this weekend, and will start uploading new selfies to my campaign Instagram, @ikaika.house, soon. Why? Because we still have a General election on November 5. So please stay tuned, support our campaign financially and with your volunteer time, and by all means, make sure to vote in a few weeks.

I’m so grateful to the incredible volunteers who joined us for all the labor of this campaign: signwaving, putting up signs, canvassing, and more. Thank you to my wife Marti and children Aholoa, Wehena and Pii; the amazing Erwin Gabrillo, his wife Aida, and the Gabrillo siblings, Nora, Cora, and Elena; Senator Dennis Nakasato; the leaders of the Kalihi caregivers – Esther Pascual, Juanita Ulep and Rose Sebastian; Kevin and Lynne; Aunty Fanny; Shirley Higa; Aunty Virgie, Aunty Tanna, Aunty Maile and Uncle Doug; my parents Edna and Herb and my brothers Kaeu and Kealakai; my uncles Ben, Rogelio, Edward, and Gerard Lardizabal; Mr. Rudy Fiesta; Randy Ching; Jun Shin; Karen Shishido; Lauren Watanabe; Nichole and Umi Perkins; Nakia Braffith; Brenda Wong; Rep. Rose Martinez and her husband Flor; Donna and Sato; my in-laws, Annie and Fred Ching; Doug and Graham; and the hundreds of people who allowed us to put up yard signs. Thank you – and we’re not done yet! One more election yet to go.

The House is undergoing a reorganization, and I want to make sure that Kalihi has a seat at the table.The only way to make progress with the things our community needs is by developing collegial relationships with my fellow legislators. To that end, I am requesting and holding meetings with all members of the Hale Lunamakaainana (the State House of Representatives). The goal is to build relationships, but also to begin having some of the tough conversations that we need to have. For example, I have real concerns about the future impact of the 2024 tax cut (I want to avoid cuts to key government programs such as education or caregiving, by making the 2024 tax cut revenue neutral. I want to find ways to tax Hawaii’s new ultra-rich denizens).

The primary role of the State Legislator is to represent Kalihi’s interests in the creation of statewide budget and policy. There’s a lot of issues, such as parking and sidewalks, which are best addressed at a very local level. To that end, I’m pulling together a nonprofit organization that can work closely with the neighborhood board to accomplish our Kalihi-specific goals. If you’d like to be involved, please let me know.

New endorsements: Mahalo to HSTA and the Iron Workers Union for recently endorsing our campaign.