Familiar names dominate OHA races in early results
Name recognition may have helped career politicians Peter Apo and Lei Ahu Isa stand out in a crowded field for the single seat open for the at-large trustee race for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. But the race appeared too close to call after the first announced results Saturday night, with incumbent Kelii Akina, who has served as trustee since 2016, holding a nearly 7,000-vote lead over Ahu Isa, and Apo just behind her. The two top candidates will go on to the general election.
Seven candidates were vying for the seat, including Brendon Kaleiaina Lee, a former OHA trustee, who trailed in fourth place, and Patty Kahanamoku Teruya, Nanakuli-Maili Neighborhood Board chair, in fifth.
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Kaialii Kahele appeared to have won the Hawaii Island resident trustee race, capturing more than half, or 56.92%, of the early vote results, well over his nearest opponent Z. Kaapana Aki, who took just under a quarter of the votes, 30,259 votes or 24%.
Kahele will likely be deemed elected after all the votes are tallied. In this case, a candidate receiving over 50% of the votes in the primary is elected.
Four candidates are vying for the Hawaii resident trustee seat, replacing incumbent OHA vice chair Mililani Trask, who bowed out of the race and endorsed Kahele.
Of the four, Kahele, who ran unsuccessfully in 2022 as a Democratic candidate for governor, is best known. He served in Congress, representing Hawaii’s 2nd congressional district from 2021 to 2023 and in the state Senate from the 1st District from 2016 to 2020.
Incumbent Luana Alapa, 63, Molokai resident trustee, had a substantial lead in the first announced results over her three rivals, getting just under half the votes at 49.11%, with 49,461 votes. R. Kunani Nihipali was her closest competition with close to a third of the votes, at 29.79% of the vote.
Because only two candidates were running for the Kauai resident trustee, the race will automatically go to the general election.
The race for OHA’s Board of Trustees is nonpartisan.
