Election

Numerous candidates running in the August 2024 Primary Election will gather at the event at Mo‘oheau Bandstand in downtown Hilo.

The live broadcast will feature mayoral candidates Kimo Alameda, Breeani Kobayashi, incumbent Mitch Roth and Jr. Tupa‘i.

AARP Hawai‘i and Na Leo TV are hosting an event with the top four Hawai‘i County mayoral candidates tonight in Hilo, while the Waimea Community Association invites people to a “speed dating” forum Thursday with primary candidates in several races.

Another head-to-head matchup between former state Sen. Laura Acasio and incumbent state Sen. Lorraine Inouye, both of Hilo, is on the ballot, as well as a race for a new face to fill the seat being vacated by longtime legislator state Rep. Richard Onishi, who is retiring this year.

The forum provides candidates and voters with close-up encounters to get to know each other better and ask questions.

The four leading hopefuls in the 2024 race will have the chance to shaire their views about the future of the Big Island and answer questions from the public.

Primary Election Day is Aug. 10. Voters should receive their ballots in the mail by July 23.

In a speech recorded in Hilo, Kai Kahele shared his vision for a more equitable and just Hawaiʻi, reaffirming his commitment to serving the Native Hawaiian community.

The sixth-generation resident of Hāmākua and her husband Bodhi own Sugar Hill Farmstead in Honomū.

Tupa‘i is among several candidates hoping to unseat the incumbent, Mayor Mitch Roth who won the election against former Mayor Harry Kim in 2020.

Born and raised in Hilo, Kekela graduated from Waiākea High School and went on to receive a business degree at Midland University in Nebraska. He moved back to Hilo in January 2020 and now owns marketing and communications company Kekela Enterprises and is active in Hui ‘Ohana, the Hawai‘i Island Native Hawaiian Chamber of Commerce.

The former Bay Clinic CEO and chief of the Hawai‘i Island Fentanyl Task Force made his announcement in front of a standing-room-only crowd at the main pavilion at Wailoa River State Recreation Area on Saturday night in Hilo.

Mayor Roth made his announcement at Nani Mau Gardens in Hilo in front of at least 165 supporters. Much of the work Roth and his administration has done since taking office on Dec. 7, 2020, has been fueled by this dream of a sustainable island for future generations.

Alameda, who was born and raised in the Hilo area, will spend the next six months collecting feedback from constituents and formulating his top prioritie.

Kimo Alameda, who has been lead of the Hawai‘i Island Fentanyl Task Force and vice president of business development for Hawai‘i Island Community Health Center since 2022, will share his thoughts about stepping away from those roles and his mayoral run during a press conference July 12.

Josh Green, the state’s ninth governor, names affordable housing, homelessness, poverty and climate change as key issues for his administration during his inauguration in Honolulu on Monday.

The Hawai‘i County Inaugural Ceremony is at noon Monday at the Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium in Hilo.

Governor-elect Josh Green today launched a website to begin taking applications for the Office of the Governor, Cabinet, and Boards and Commissions.

Democrats sweep the top races in Hawaiʻi, with Josh Green winning the governorship, Brian Schatz being reelected to the US Senate and Ed Case and Jill Tokuda winning the two US House seats.

Only one Hawai’i County Council seat is up for grabs: District 2 that pits political newcomers Jennifer Kagiwada and Matthias Kusch. Three proposed County Charter Amendments also are on the ballot.