As the only former kingdom and the only island state in our country, Hawaii provides some of the most unique history in our nation’s development and some of its recent electoral history has been overlooked in light of the more prominent battlegrounds.
Early History – The Kingdom of Hawaii
Hawaii was first explored by Europeans when Captain James Cook discovered the islands on his third voyage in 1778. Cook would use the Hawaiian Islands to resupply during his search for the fabled Northwest Passage, but would ultimately be killed in a dispute with the natives in 1779. Hawaii was originally developed around a caste system, in which people were born into and remained in certain classes for their entire lives. The monarchy was also subsisted by a system of feudalism, in which land was granted in exchange for services to the government. Specific trades took root on each island, with Maui responsible for canoe construction and Oahu specialized in cloth manufacturing. This separation among the islands allowed for four chiefdoms to be established: Hawaii, Kauai, Maui, and Oahu.
King Kamehameha I fulfilled native prophecy by unifying these islands in 1810 until his death in 1819. Kamehameha III surrendered the throne to allow for the creation of a constitution in 1840, allowing the islands to be governed by three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. He retained control of the government, but instead of a monarchy, Hawaii functioned more like a republic. Kamehameha III also sent delegates to the United States and Europe to gain recognition as an independent nation and prevent foreign incursions.
Protestant missionaries would set foot in Hawaii by the 1820s, which allowed for the first population and economic booms in the islands. As churches established a community, white whalers and farmers began to see Hawaii as a cash cow. Agriculture became the top staple, with coffee, fruit, and sugar becoming the cash crops of the islands, especially sugar. As plantation owners claimed their stakes, immigration to the islands soared. Plantation owners brought in farmhands from China, Japan, Korea, and the Philippines. In just seventy years, the native Hawaiian population saw itself drop from near-100% to just 16% by 1923.
The Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 is the first event that led to eventual ownership of Hawaii by the United States. The treaty gave the Kingdom of Hawaii free access to U.S. markets for products grown in the islands, most notably sugar, around which a massive economic empire was growing. In return, the U.S. stipulated that Hawaii not cede or lease any of its land to other foreign parties. An extension of the treaty gave the U.S. exclusive use of the lands around the area called Pu’u Loa, which is where the U.S. would build the Pearl Harbor Naval Base.
U.S. use of Pearl Harbor resulted in the Rebellion of 1887, which was launched in anger against the debt and scandal of the Kingdom. King Kalākaua was forced to sign the so-called “Bayonet Constitution,” which dissolved most of the monarchical powers and transferred them to a coalition of Americans, Europeans, and native Hawaiians. Kalākaua was also known for seeking Japanese protection of Hawaii, a move which was rejected by Japan under fear of poor relations with the United States. He was succeeded by Queen Lili’uokalani, who presided over a difficult economic period for Hawaii, mainly due to the U.S. rescinding duties on sugar imports.
Lili’uokalani found grassroots support for her new constitution, which would have disenfranchised many Americans and Europeans. However, her cabinet did not support her plans because of the ramifications of such a drastic change when tensions were already boiling. On January 17, 1893, Lili’uokalani and the Hawaiian Kingdom were overthrown by a coalition of sugar and pineapple businessmen supported by the U.S. government. The coup’s leader, Stanford Ballard Dole (R), was installed as the new president. He was a member of the family who started the Hawaiian Pineapple Company, now known as Dole Foods.
Hawaii was formally annexed as a U.S. Territory in 1898 under expansionist President William McKinley (R-OH), mostly at the behest of the sugar industry, but also with military interests in mind as the U.S. fought the Pacific theatre of the Spanish-American War in Guam and the Philippines.
Twentieth Century Politics –
A Long Road to Statehood
Sugarcane plantations exploded during the territorial period, so much so that a group called “The Big Five” [sugarcane corporations] effectively ran Hawaii’s economy and politics.
Hawaii would find outsized influence in World War II as Japan attacked the naval base in Pearl Harbor, destroying six U.S. ships and killing almost 2,500 people. Hawaii’s presence as a military state put it at the forefront of the Pacific theatre and saw the economic landscape of the islands change drastically. In 1940, Hawaii was home to just 28,000 U.S. military personnel. By 1944, there were almost 400,000.
After the war, most of the military presence left the islands, which stunted economic growth until tourism became Hawaii’s bread and butter. Transportation between Asia and North America allowed Hawaii to become the only stopover for a long period of time.
Due to the influence of the “Big Five” sugar companies and the sugar and military industries in general, Hawaii was expected to be a Republican-leaning state. Contrarily, Alaska, the only other non-contiguous state, was expected to be a Democratic-leaning state. Southern Democrats resisted Hawaii’s statehood, as they opposed racial integration and viewed Hawaii’s admission as a boon to the Civil Rights movement. Since Alaska was expected to lean blue, the compromise saw both territories become states. Alaska was admitted in January 1959, and on August 21, 1959, Hawaii was admitted as the fiftieth state and – so far – final state.
The initial expectation of Hawaii’s Republican tendencies held true during the territorial and early statehood periods. Hawaii’s first governor, William Quinn (R), was elected in 1959. He was defeated for re-election in 1962 and Hawaii would not elect another Republican governor until Linda Lingle (R) in 2002.
Likewise, Hiram Fong (R) was elected as one of the first two Senators from the state. He served until his retirement in 1977. Republicans have never held a Senate seat in Hawaii since.
The territorial legislature was mostly held by Republicans from 1898 until 1954. Republicans held the State Senate from 1959 until 1962 and have not held political power in Honolulu since.
In Hawaii’s first presidential election in 1960, John F. Kennedy (D-MA) outperformed expectations and carried Hawaii over Richard Nixon (R-CA) by just 115 out of nearly 180,000 cast. Kennedy won the island of Oahu, home to the population center and capital city of Honolulu. This remains the closest election in Hawaii’s history.
What sugarcane magnates did not expect is that their importation of Asian immigrants, mostly from Japan, Korea, and the Philippines, would build a massive coalition of minority voters who would end up being a solid fit for the Democratic Party. This quickly became apparent.
Lyndon Johnson (D-TX) carried Hawaii with a stunning 78% of the vote, the largest percentage of the vote for any presidential candidate in the Aloha State. Even native son Barack Obama (D-IL) did not eclipse these margins. His 2008 and 2012 elections, along with Johnson’s 1964 election, mark the only three times in history Hawaii has been won with more than 70% of the vote.
Nixon would become the first Republican to win Hawaii in his forty-nine-state landslide in 1972, the first of just two instances in which Hawaii backed the Republican nominee. It’s also the last time Hawaii voted more Republican than the nation overall, and the first of only two times a Republican has received more than 60% of the vote – the other being Governor Lingle’s 2006 re-election.
Jimmy Carter (D-GA) would win Hawaii by just three points in 1976 and by just two in 1980. Ronald Reagan (R-CA) would sweep all five of Hawaii’s counties in 1984, marking the last time a Republican has won Hawaii and any county in the state overall.
Democrats regularly struggled to find more than 60% of the vote in Hawaii thereafter, with George W. Bush (R-TX) coming within just ten points of the state in 2004 against John Kerry (D-MA). However, Obama’s native-son status would push the state solidly into the Democratic column. Trump’s meager 34% in 2020 is the best showing for a Republican since Bush’s 45% in 2004.
Geography – The Aloha State
Hawaii’s geography can be summed up by its five counties.
- Hawaii County – The Big Island, the largest in the U.S., home to Hilo. Solidly Democratic.
- Honolulu County – All of the island of Oahu, home to the state’s population center, tourism center, and capital. Also home to some of the few Republican-leaning districts at the state level. Solidly Democratic on the presidential level.
- Kalawao County – On the island of Molokai; at just 5.2 square miles, the smallest county in the country, and the second-smallest by population. Donald Trump received just one vote here in 2020, to Biden’s 23. The county has no elected government and is a judicial district of Maui County.
- Kauai County – The westernmost islands of Kauai, Lehua, and Ni’ihau; home to the town of Lihue; solidly Democratic.
[The islands of Kaho’olawe, Lanai, Maui, Molokai, and Molokini. Home to Wailuku and Haleakala National Park; solidly Democratic. 5. Maui County – The islands of Kaho’olawe, Lanai, Maui, Molokai, and Molokini. Home to Wailuku and Haleakala National Park; solidly Democratic.
Current Political Leanings
Hawaii has one of the most lopsided state legislatures in the country, as Democrats enjoy a 23-2 majority in the Senate and a 45-6 majority in the House. From 2017 to 2019, Democrats had all 25 Senate seats in the legislature.
Republicans have last held a Senate seat here in 1977 and have never held both Senate seats simultaneously, joining Vermont and Kansas as the only other two states where both parties have not held both Senate seats at the same time.
Only two Republicans have served as governor, with only one – Linda Lingle – being re-elected.
Republican Charles Djou scored an upset win in a 2010 House special election for the First Congressional District, a canary in the coal mine for Democrats’ horrible electoral prospects that year. He was defeated in November of that year and no Republican has represented Hawaii in Congress since.
However, Democrats’ stronghold on Hawaii does not come without its problems. The party is more “big tent” here and it has shown as more progressive members of the party clash with establishment leadership. Some have bucked the party in general, most notably in the form of former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D, HI-02), who is now an Independent echoing calls for more conservative governance.
However, it will take more intraparty fighting than that to make Hawaii even remotely competitive in the future. Republicans hope high taxes and turbulent economies can give them some form of political leverage. Hawaii’s highly diverse and educated electorate makes this a tough lift for Republicans as it is, but progressive politics can easily find a home in the nation’s bluest state.
