County Council Incumbents to Keep Their Seats, Early Counts Show

Councilmember Rebecca Villegas.

Early counts in this evening’s primary election show that Hawai‘i County Council incumbents are keeping their seats.

In District 7, Councilwoman Rebecca Villegas is ahead with 2,980 votes over Jane Clement who has 2,183.

In District 5, Matthew Kaneali‘i-Kleinfelder currently sits with 2,462 votes while his challenger Ikaika Rodenhurst has claimed 2,215 votes.

In District 9, Tim Richards has garnered 3,448 votes and his challenger Philip Aiona has grabbed 2,415.

Ashley Kierkiewicz, councilwoman for District 4, and Maile David, councilwoman for District 5, ran unopposed.

Valerie Poindexter, councilwoman for District 1, chose not to run again. Her seat is now up for grabs with Dominic Yagong in the lead, with 2,146 of the votes among the six candidates.

The District 8 council seat is also open. Holeka Goro Inaba leads with 3,116 votes and Craig (Bo) Kahui with 2,025 votes.

Early numbers also show Aaron Chung, District 2 councilman, and Councilwoman Sue Lee Loy of District 3 easily keeping their seats as they lead their challengers by a large margin.

This is the first year Hawai‘i has conducted all mail-in voting during a primary election. Another count of the votes will be done at 10 p.m.